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LIBRARY 

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University  of  California 


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ARCH/EOLOGICAL 
HISTORY  OF  OHIO 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS 
AND  LATER  INDIANS 


"By  Gerard  Fowke 


PUBLISHED  BY   THE   OHIO   STATE  ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
AND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


COLUMBUS,  OHIO 

PRESS  OF  FRED.  J.  HEER 

1902 


Entered  according-  to  the  Act  of  Congress 
in  the  year  1902 

BY  E.   O.   RANDAI^Iv 

In  the  ofl&ce  of  the  I,ibrarian  of  Congress 
at  Washington 


KFFIQY    F»IF»K. 


BACK     VIEW. 


SIDE   VIEW. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


THE  Arch^.ological  History  of  Ohio,  which  is  herewith  given 
to  the  pubHc,  is  the  consummation  of  a  desire  long  entertained 
by  the  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society.  The 
Society  is  enabled  to  put  forth  this  publication  by  means  of  the 
appreciative  and  generous  assistance  of  the  General  Assembly,  which 
made  sufficient  appropriations  for  the  purpose  in  the  years  1900  and  1902. 
Probably  no  work  of  equal  character  and  completeness  has  been  produced 
by  any  state  in  the  Union.  Certainly  no  other  state  affords  such  rich 
material  for  similar  work.  While  the  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio 
is  published  by  the  Society  under  the  auspices  of  the  state,  it  is  to  be 
regarded  in  no  sense  as  a  public  document  for  gratuitous  distribution. 
For  the  preparation  of  this  work  the  Society  was  fortunate  in 
obtaining  the  services  of  Mr.  Gerard  Fowke,  who  has  had  extensive  and 
A^aried  experience  as  an  Archaeologist.  He  has  conducted  explorations  for 
the  National  American  Bureau  of  Ethnology;  in  1884,  at  Flint  Ridge  in 
Licking  county  (Ohio)  ;  in  1885,  in  northern  Mississippi,  southern  Ohio 
and  northern  Kentucky;  in  1886,  in  western  Pennsylvania,  southern 
Illinois  and  western  Kentucky;  in  1887,  in  conjunction  with  James  D. 
Middleton  made  surveys  of  alDoriginal  works  in  Licking,  Ross  and  Pike 
counties;  collected  data  for  archaeological  map  from  Detroit  to  Duluth, 
principally  along  the  lake  shores,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  interior  of 
Michigan  (northern  and  southern  peninsulas),  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota; 
then  arnong  the  effigy  mounds  of  Wisconsin  and  Iowa;  thence  down  the 
Mississippi  to  Cairo  and  across  western  and  central  Kentucky.  In 
1891-2-3,  examined  the  valleys  of  the  James,  Potomac,  Shenandoah 
and  South  Branch,  in  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  and  Maryland,  opening 
large  numbers  of  mounds;  made  a  partial  map  of  the  mounds  and  shell 
heaps  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  In  1892  visited 
Columbia,  South  America,  and  studied  aboriginal  remains.  In  1893, 
studied  the  archaeological  localities  in  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Indiana  and  Ohio.  In  1894  and  1896,  studied  the  remains  of  the  Norsemen 
on  Charles  river  near  Boston.  In  1898,  opened  various  cairns  on  Van- 
couver's Island  (British  Columbia),  and  explored  the  lower  Amoor 
river  in  Siberia,  for  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  of 
New  York. 

Mr.  Fowke  has  written  extensively  for  publications,  particularly 
the  reports  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology; 
in  the  American  Anthropologist;  Science;  the  American  Naturalist;  Folk 
Lore  Journal;  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Quarterly;  Ohio  Geo- 
logical Survey  Reports;  Denison  University  Bulletins;  Ohio  Academy  of 
Science  (special  papers);  the  American  Archaeologist;  Popular  Science; 
Reports  of  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Science  and  numerous 
magazines    and    newspapers. 

E.  O.  Randall, 
Secretary  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society. 
Columbus,    Ohio,    April,    1902. 

(iii) 


235121 


PREFACE 


"There  is  more  ado  to  interpret  interpretations  than  to  interpret 
the  things,  and  more  books  upon  books  than  upon  all  other  subjects;  we- 
do  nothing  but  comment  upon  one  another." 


This  volume  is  not  written  for  scientists  or  specialists. 

Many  persons  interested  in  archaeology  are  desirous  of  extending 
their  knowledge,  but  have  not  the  time,  opportunity,  or  perhaps  courage 
to  wade  through  the  vast  amount  of  literature  that  has  accumulated  on 
this  subject  in  the  past  fifty  years.  To  lighten  this  labor,  an  attempt, 
is  made  in  the  following  pages  to  compile  so  much  of  it  as  relates  to 
Ohio  antiquities,  and  present  it  in  convenient  form.  As  certain  features 
of  Ohio  archaeology  can  not  be  understood  when  considered  alone,  there 
must  be  brought  into  the  work  a  number  of  descriptions  of  remains^ 
outside  her  borders.  This  is  the  more  necessary  owing  to  the  general 
impression  that  traces  of  the  Mound  Builders,  wherever  found  or  of 
whatever  nature,  belong  to  one  race  existing  within  one  defmite  period, 
of  time. 

To  the  writer  has  been  assigned  the  task  of  preparing  the  manu- 
script and  selecting  the  illustrations  ;  the  reproduction  of  the  latter  and 
the  publication  of  the  entire  work  has  been  assumed  by  the  Ohio  Archae- 
ological and  Historical  Society.  Most  of  the  figures,  except  those  in 
the  chapter  on  relics,  have  been  borrowed  from  the  sources  indicated 
in  the  text.  The  explanation  of  abbreviated  references  wail  be  found 
in  the  appendix. 

^, ^  Gerard  Fowke. 

Chilhcothe,  Ohio,  July,  1901. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I.  PAGE, 

Introductory    1 

CHAPTER   H. 

Paleolithic  Man.     The  Evidence  of  His  Existence.     Objections  to 

the  Evidence.     Necessity  for  Careful  Examination 6 

In    Europe 6 

In   America 7 

The  Trenton  Gravels  of  the  Delaware  River 7 

Glacial  Man  in  Ohio 15 

CHAPTER    III. 

Theories  of  the  Origin  and  Migrations  of  North  American  Indians. 
Natives  of  North  America.  Conjectures  as  to  Their  Origin. 
Ways  in  Which  the  New  World  Might  Have  Been  Peopled  from 
the  Old.  Possibly  a  Distinct  Variety.  Apparently  of  Great 
Antiquity.  Mounds  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  Of  Various 
Ages.  Widely  Distributed.  Probable  Initial  Seat  of  American 
Aborigines.     Lines    of    Migration.     Suggestions    as    to    Lineage 

of  Mound  Builders 31 

Mound  Building  Peoples 43 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Mound  Builders.  Ohio  Mound  Builders.  Early  Writers.  Little 
Known  until  the  Report  of  Squier  and  Davis.  Great  Increase  in 
Number  of  Authors  Since  Their  Day.  Conflicting  Opinions  Re- 
garding This  People.  Theories  as  to  Their  Affiliation  with  His- 
toric Tribes.  No  Definite  Knowledge  Concerning  Their  Origin 
or    End 54 

A.  Civilization    61 

.     B.    Religion    76 

C.  Numbers  78 

D.  Extent 86 

Geographical  Limitations  of  Types 101 

B.  Age    104 

The  Mastodon  or  Mammoth 107 

The  Buffalo  113 

Human  Bones 115 

(V) 


vi  Table  of  Contents. 

PAGE. 

Trees  117 

Terraces   124 

The  Formation  of  Terraces 127 

Surface  Accumulation  and  Erosion 130 

F.     Physical    Structure 131 

Crania    13 1 

Jaws,  Teeth,  and  Limbs 142 

Summary    146 

CHAPTER   V. 

Enclosures.    The  Enclosures  of  Ohio.    Classification.    Theories  as  to 

Use.    Methods  of  Designing  and  Building,    Description 149* 

Geometric    Enclosures , 162 

Newark    Works 162 

Marietta  Works 171 

Charleston  (West  Virgmia)   Works 173 

Portsmouth  Works 173 

Pike  County  Works 179 

Ross  County  Works 181 

Harness   Works 184 

High  Banks  Works 187 

Chillicothe  Works 190 

Frankfort  Works 190 

Hopetown  Works   190 

Cedar  Banks  Works 196- 

"Mound    City" 198 

Dunlap's  Works I99. 

Blackwater    Works 202 

"Junction    Group" 202 

Clark's  Works,  or  the  Hopewell  Works 204 

Baum's  Works,  Bourneville 206 

Bainbridge   (Pricer's)    Works 206 

Circleville    Works 208 

Remains  in  the  Miami  Valleys 209' 

Turner   Works 209* 

Cincinnati    Works 212 

Other    Works 212 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Smaller  Enclosures  and  Works  of  Irregular  Construction.  Minor 
Geometrical  Enclosures.  Confined  Mainly  to  Southern  Half  of 
the  State.  Probably  Walls  of  Villages.  The  Smallest,  Possibly 
Foundations  for  Houses.  Irregular  Works,  Mostly  in  Northern 
Part  of  the  State  and  in  Miami  Valleys.    Evidently  for  Defensive 

Purposes.    Similar  Works  Common  in  Other  States 220 


Table  of  Contents,  vii 
CHAPTETl  VII. 

PAGE. 

Hill-top  Enclosures.  Effective  Defenses.  Deficient  Water  Supply. 
Large  Areas  Included.  Amount  of  Labor  Involved  in  Con- 
struction.   Possibly  Not  Work  of  the  Mound  Builders 238 

Fort  Ancient,  Warren  County 239 

Spruce  Hill,  Ross  County 242 

Fort  Hill,  Highland  County 244 

Glenford  Fort,  Ferry  County 248 

Fort  Miami,  Hamilton  County 254 

Fort  at  Foster's,  Warren  County 256 

"Fortified  Hill,"  Butler  County 257 

"Fortified  Hill,"  Licking  County 259 

Fort  near  Newark,  Licking  County 261 

Fort  on  Flint  Ridge,  Licking  County 261 

Other  Hill  Forts 261 

To  what  People  May  We  Attribute  the  Forts  ? 265 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Graded  Ways,  Terraces,  Effigies,  and  Anomalous  Structures 271 

A.  Graded  Ways  

A.  At  Marietta   272 

B.  At  Richmonddale   273 

c.     At  Piqua     274 

D.  At  Piketon    274 

E.  At  Waverly 278 

F.  At  Newark 278 

G.  Near   Bourneville 278 

H.    At  Madisonville    278 

I.     Near  Carlisle   279 

B.  Terraces    281 

At  Fort  Ancient  and  Waynesville 281 

At  Red  Bank,  Hamilton  County 281 

C.  Effigies 282 

A.  Serpent  ^lound,  Adams  County 282 

B.  The  Opossum,  Licking  County 291 

c.     The  Newark    Figure 292 

D.  The  Tapir,  Scioto  County 294 

E.  The  Bear,  opposite  Portsmouth 295 

D.  Anomalous  Structures 295 

The  Cross,  Pickaway  County 295 

Stone  Work,  Ross  County 295 

The  Trefoil,  Ross  County 297 


viii  Table  of  Contents. 

CHAPTER   IX.  p^^^^ 

The  Mounds  of  Ohio.  Numbers.  Size.  Form.  Classification. 
Stratification.  Altars.  Position  of  Skeletons.  Property  Buried 
with  the   Dead.     Origin  of   the   Custom.     How   Mounds   were 

Built 299 

Altar  Mounds ^^^ 

Altars    3^^ 

Temple  Mounds ^^^ 

Lookout  Mounds ^^^ 

Sepulchral  Mounds ^1^ 

How  Mounds  Were  Built 319 

CHAPTER   X. 

Structure  and  Contents  of  Mounds 322 

Northern  Ohio 322 

Central  and  Southern  Ohio 324 

Grave  Creek  Mound,  West  Virginia 324 

Charleston,  West  Virginia 328 

Knox   County 329 

Licking    County 331 

Athens  County 335 

Lower  Muskingum  Valley 337 

Hocking  County 339 

Pickaway  County 341 

Ross  County 342 

Hopewell's   -343 

Baum's    347 

Chillicothe 348 

Harness's    359 

Pike   County 362 

Adams  County 380 

Brown   County 380 

Clermont  County 381 

Montgomery    County 382 

Butler  County 383 

Hamilton  County 383 

Turner  Group 385 

CHAPTER   XL 

Stone  Mounds.  Stone  Graves.  Cemeteries.  Village  Sites.  Shell 
Heaps.  Funnel  Shaped  Pits.  Rock  Shelters.  Rock  Inscrip- 
tions    388 

Stone  Mounds 388 

Stone    Graves 391 

Village  Sites   406 

Cemeteries 412 


Table  of  Contents.  ix 

PAGE. 

Shell  Heaps 413 

Funnel-shaped  Pits 414 

Rock  Shelters 415 

Rock  Inscriptions 417 

Localities  of  Inscribed  Rocks 423 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Some  Analogies  Between  the  Remains  of  Mound  Builders  and  Those 

of  Modern  Indians 425 

Traditions     427 

The  Modern  Indian  as  a  Builder  of  Mounds 445 

Reported  Objects  of  Modern  Date,  Exhumed  from  Mounds 455 

Salt-making   4G2 

Conclusions 469 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Indians.     False   Beliefs   Regarding  Them.     Home   Life.     Character, 

as  Portrayed  by  Those  Familiar  with  Them „  473 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

Sources  of  Material  for  Manufactured  Objects 509 

Art  in  Stone.    Methods  of  Working.    Classification.    Uses 509 

Pecked  or  Ground  Objects 521 

Axes,  Celts,  and  Gouges 521 

Axes  521 

Celts 526 

Gouges    532 

Hematite  Celts 532 

Pestles 536 

Mullers 539 

Pitted  Stones 539 

Cup-stones   539 

Hammer-stones 545 

IMortars  548 

Sinkers  and  Large  Perforated  Stones 519 

Discoidal  Stones 551 

Spuds 554 

Plummets     550 

Cones  559 

Hemispheres    559 

CHAPTER   XV. 

Stones  for  Decorative  or  Ceremonial  Purposes 561 

Gorgets   564 

Barmer    Stones 566 


X                                     Table  of  Contents. 
Bird-shaped  Stones 


PAGE. 

569 
569 


Spools    

Working  Soft  Stone ^'^ 

rr^      X.  570 

Tubes 

Inscribed    Tablets ^°^ 

Pipes    ^^l 

Sculptures ^^\ 

The  Manitus ^^^ 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

Chipped  Stone  Articles ^^^ 

Sources  of  Raw  Material "1^ 

Flint   Ridge. ^^^ 

Quarries  near  Warsaw ^^^ 

New   Lexington 62^ 

Carter  County,  Kentucky 625 

Kanawha  Valley -  •  •  •  ^26 

Wyandotte  Cave ^^^ 

The  Manufacture  of  Flint  Implements 632 

Flaking   • 634 

Arrow-making    635 

Time  Required 643 

Uses  of  Chipped  Flint  Articles 645 

Other  Forms  of  Flint  Implements 657 

Perforators    657 


Bunts 


^m 


Scrapers    667 

Cores   » 668 

Flakes    670' 

Ceremonial    Flints 672 

Serration 673 

Beveling    673 

Some  Odd  Suggestions 676 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

Other  Manufactured  Articles 678 

Bone 678 

Shell 684 

Pottery    691 

Fabric    697 

Mica 701 

Copper 704 

How  Copper  was  Obtained  and  Worked 705- 

Implements  and  Ornaments  of  Copper 714 

APPENDIX. 

Explanation  of  Reference   Notes 729* 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE.. 

Figure  1.—  The  "Elephant  Mound"  of  Wisconsin 111. 

Figures  2  and  3. —  The  "Elephant  Pipes"  from  Iowa Ill 

Figure  4. —  Mound  in  which  skull  was  found 137 

Figure  5. —  Section  of  above  mound 138. 

Figure  6. —  Profile  of  skull  from  mound 138 

Figure  7. —  Front  and  top  view  of  skull  from  mound 139 

Figure  8. —  Morgan's  "Restoration  of  High  Bank  Pueblo" 156 

Figure  9.—  Morgan's  Plan  of  "High  Bank  Pueblo" 157 

Figure  10. — Six  miles  of  Raccoon  creek  valley,  Licking  county 163 

Figure  11. —  The  Newark  works,  Licking  county 164 

Figure  12. —  Minor  work  at  Newark 166 

Figure  13. —  The  Fair  Ground  Circle  at  Newark 169 

Figure  14. —  The  Square  at  Newark 170- 

Figure  15. —  The  Marietta  works 172 

Figure  16. —  The  Portsmouth  group 174 

Figure  17. —  Work  opposite  old  mouth  of  the  Scioto 175 

Figure  18. —  Works  on  the  site  of  Portsmouth 177 

Figure  19. —  Mound  and  concentric  circles  in  Kentucky 177 

Figure  20. —  Mound  within  enclosure,  Greenup  county  Kentucky 178 

Figure  21. —  The  Barnes  work,  Pike  county 180 

Figure  22. —  Ditch  and  embankment,  with  Barnes  work 181 

Figure  23. —  Twelve  miles  of  the  Scioto  valley 182 

Figure  24. —  Six  miles  of  Paint  creek  valley 183^ 

Figure  25. —  Harness,  or  Liberty  township  group,  Ross  county 185 

Figure  26. —  Correct  outline  of  small  circle.  Harness  group 187 

Figure  27. —  High  Banks  works,  Ross  county 188 

Figure  28.—  Octagon  at  High  Banks 189 

Figure  29.—  Works  at  Chillicothe 191 

Figure  30. —  Works  at  Frankfort,  Ross  county 191 

Figure  31. —  Works  at  Hopetown,  Ross  county 192 

Figure  32. —  The  square  at  Hopetown 194 

Figure  33. —  The  circle  at  Hopetown 195 

Figure  34. —  Cedar  Banks  works,  Ross  county 196 

Figure  35. —  "Mound  City,"  Ross  county 199 

Figure  36. —  Dunlap  works,  Ross  county.' 200 

Figure  37. — •  Blackwater  group,  Ross  county 201 

Figure  38. —  Junction  group,  Ross  county 203 

Figure  39. —  Clark's  works,  or  Hopewell  group,  Ross  county 205 

Figure  40. —  Baum  works,  near  Bourneville,  Ross  county 207 

Figure  41. —  Pricer  works,  near  Bainbridge,  Ross  county 207 

Figure  42. —  Six  miles  of  the  Great  Miami  valley 210' 

(xi) 


xii  List  of  Illustrations. 

PAGE. 

Figure  43.—  Work  in  Clermont  county 213 

Figure  44.—  The  "Gridiron,"  Clermont  county 213 

Figure  45.—  Coleraine  work,   Butler  county 214 

Figure  46.—  Works  at  Alexanders ville,   Montgomery  county 216 

Figure  47.—  Square  near  Worthington,  Franklin  county 218 

Figure  48.—  Ellipse  near  Bourneville,  Ross  county 218 

Figure  49.—  Works  near  Dublin,  Franklin  county 222 

Figure  50.—  Works  in  Athens  county 223 

Figure  51.—  Archaeological  map  of  Miami  county.  .  .• 224 

Figure  52.—  Work  on  Massie's  creek,  Greene  county 227 

Figure  53.—  Works  at  Norwalk,  Huron  county 228 

Figure  54.—  Works  in  Ashtabula  and  Cuyahoga  counties 229 

Figure  55.—  Works  near    Cleveland 230 

Figure  56. —  Work  near  Toledo 231 

Figures  57  and  58.—  Works  in  Lorain  county 231 

Figure  59.—  Fort  Ancient,  Warren  county 241 

Figure  60.—  Spruce  Hill  Fort,  Ross  county 243 

Figure  61.—  Fort  Hill,  Highland  county 246 

Figure  62.—  Map  of  the  vicinity  of  Fdrt  Hill 247 

Figure  63.—  Glenford  Fort,  Perry  county 248 

Figure  64.—  East  wall  of  Glenford  Fort 250 

Figure  65.—  Portion  of  eastern  wall,  Glenford  Fort 251 

Figure  m.—  Wall  on  east  slope,  Glenford  Fort 252 

Figure  67.—  View  from  interior  of  Glenford  Fort 253 

Figure  68.—  Fort  Miami,  Hamilton  county • 255 

Figure  69.—  "Fortified  Hill,"  Butler   county 258 

Figure  70.— "Fortified  Hill,"  Licking  county,  with  exterior  ditch 260 

Figure  71.—  Hill  fort,  with  exterior  ditch,  Licking  county 262 

Figure  72.—  Stone  fort  on  Flint  Ridge,  Licking  county 262 

Figure  73. — •  Fortifications  in  Butler  county 263 

Figure  74. —  Enclosures  in  Miami  and  Montgomery  counties 264 

Figure  75.—  Graded  Way,  Pike  county;  from  Squier  and  Davis.  ....  276 

Figure  76.—  Graded  Way ;  from  Squier  and  Davis 277 

Figure  77. —  Graded  Way ;  correct  plan  and  sections 277 

Figure  78. —  Serpent  Mound ;  from  Squier  and  Davis 283 

Figure  79. —  Map  of  Serpent  Mound  Park ;  from  Putnam .  285 

Figure  80.—  Serpent  Mound ;  from  McLean 286 

Figure  81. —  Serpent  Mound ;  from  Holmes 290 

Figure  82. —  The  Opossum  Mound,  Licking  county 291 

Figure  83. —  The  Newark  "Effigy,"  Licking  county 293 

Figure  84. —  Groups  of  conjoined  mounds 293 

Figure  85. —  The  "Tapir,"  Scioto  county 294 

Figure  86. —  The  Cross,   Pickaway  county 296 

Figure  87. —  Stone  work,  Ross  county 296 

Figure  88.—  The  Trefoil,  Ross  county 298 

Figure  89. —  The  Marietta  Mound ;  from  a  fanciful  sketch 301 

Figure  90. —  The  Marietta  Mound ;  from  a  photograph 301 


List  of  Illustrations,  xiii 

PAGE. 

Figure  91. —  The  Miamisburg  Mound;   from  a  photograph 302 

Figure  92. —  The  Tippett  Mound,  Licking  county;  from  a  sketch 302 

Figure  93. —  Great  Stone  Mound,  Licking  Co.,  impossible  "restoration."  302 

Figure  94. —  Theoretical  section  of  a  mound  and  altar 305 

Figure  95. —  Outlines  of  separate  loads  of  earth  in  a  mound 307 

Figure  96.—  Plan  of  mound  at  Mt.  Vernon 330 

Figiire  97. —  Section  of  above  mound 330 

Figure  98. —  Group  of  mounds  near  Brownsville  and  Linville 332 

Figure  99. —  Stone  mound  in  above  group 333 

Figure  100.—  Temple  Mound  at  Marietta 338 

Figure  101. —  Enclosure  with  interior  mound  near  Adelphi 340 

Figure  102. —  Section  of  mound  with  altar 344 

Figure  103. —  Sections  of  mound  at  Baum's 347 

Figure  104. —  Imaginary  section  of  a  mound 350 

Figure  105. —  Plan  and  section  of  altar 350 

Figure  100. —  Section  of  a  mound  with  very  large  altar 351 

Figure  107. —  Longitudinal  section  of  above  altar 351 

Figure  108. —  Cross  section  of  same 351 

Figure  109. —  Cross  section  of  altar 353 

Figure  110. —  Wooden  pick  and  log  cut  with  stone  ax 356 

Figure  111. —  Section  of  a  mound 360 

Figure  112. —  Plan  and  section  of  Harness  mound 360 

Figure  113. —  Monitor  pipe  from  Harness  mound , 360 

Figure  114. —  Front  view  of  skull  from  Waverly  mound 366 

Figure  115. —  Side  view  of  above  skull 367 

Figure  116. —  Front  view  of  skull  from  Waverly  mound 368 

Figure  117, —  Side  view  of  above  skull 369 

Figure  118. —  Mound  of  stone  covered  with  earth,   Chillicothe 390 

Figure  119. —  Stone  graves  in  a  mound  of  earth,  Brown  county 393 

Figure  120. —  Grave  in  above  mound 395 

Figure  121. —  Cairn  with  covering  intact,  in  above  mound 396 

Figures  122  and  123. —  Grave,  cleaned  out,   in  above  cairn 397 

Figure  124. —  Grave  made  of  clay  and  stone  in  above  mound 399 

Figure  125. —  Cairn  in  Brown  county 399 

Figure  126. —  Grave  cleaned  out,  in  a  cairn 401 

Figure  127. —  Cairn  in  Brown  county 403 

Figure  128. —  Grave  in  above  cairn 403 

Figure  129. —  Plan  and  section  of  stone  grave  near  Ripley 405 

Figure  130. —  Cairn  containing  an  "arch,"  near  Ripley 405 

Figure  131. —  Refuse  pit,  Madisonville 407 

Figure  132. —  Refuse  pit,  containing  charred  corn,  Madisonville 407 

Figure  133. —  Refuse  pit  containing  human  skeleton,  Madisonville...  408 

Figure  134. —  One  of  the  Barnesville  "Track  Rocks" 419 

Figure  135. —  Some  details  of  above  inscription 420 

Figure  136.—  Barnesville  "Track  Rock" 421 

Figure  137.—  Newark  "Track  Rock" 422 

Figure  138. —  Inscribed  rock  at  Independence 42^ 


xiv  List  of  Illustrations . 

PAGE. 

Figures  139  and  140.—  Aboriginal  hut  plastered  and  floored  with  mud.  461 

Figure  141. —  Axe  with  two  grooves 521 

Figures  142  to  154. —  Grooved  axes 527-530 

Figures  155  to  157.—  Hatchets,  tomahawks,  or  celts 533-535 

Figure  158. —  Hematite  celts 536 

Figures  159  to  162.—  Pestles 537-538 

Figure  163.—  Mullers  539 

Figure  164. —  Cup-stone    •  541 

Figure  165. —  Large  boulder  with  numerous  cups 546 

Figure  166. —  Hammers,  sinkers,  or  club-heads;  round  and  grooved.  547 

Figures  167  and  168. —  Discoidal  Stones 555 

Figure  169. —  Spud-like   implement 557 

Figure  170.—  Plummets 557 

Figures  171  and  172. —  Cones    560 

Figure  173. —  Hemispheric    stones 560 

Figures  174  to  176.—  Gorgets 566-568 

Figure  177. —  Banner  stones 570 

Figure  178.—  Pendants    571 

Figure  179. —  Perforated  round  stones 571 

Figure  180.—  Picks  571 

Figure  181. —  Bar   amulets 572 

Figure  182. —  Bird  shaped  stones 572 

Figure  183. —  Spool  shaped  stones 573 

Figure  184. —  Unfinished  pipes 573 

Figures  185  to  187. —  Unfinished  slate  objects 574-576 

Figure  188. —  Grinding  or  polishing  stones 576 

Figure  189.—  Tubes    577 

Figure  190. —  Monitor  pipes 585 

Figure  191. —  Unfinished  effigy  pipe 586 

Figures  192  to  195. —  Effigy  pipes ;   human  heads 591-592 

Figure  196. —  Effigy  pipe  ;  figure  with  human  head 592 

Figure  197. —  Effigy  pipe ;  bird  with  human  head 592 

Figure  198. —  Effigy  pipe ;  human  figure  with  coiled  snake 593 

Figures  199  and  200.—  Human  faces  carved  in  stone 593-594 

Figure  201.—  Effigy  pipe ;  elk 594 

Figure  202.—  Effigy  pipe ;  wildcat 594 

Figure  203.—  Effigy  pipe ;    otter 594 

Figure  204.—  Effigy  pipe ;    heron 595 

Figure  205.—  Effigy  pipe ;    eagle  or  hawk    595 

Figure  206,—  Effigy  pipe ;    buzzard 595 

Figure  207.— Effigy   pipe;     paroquet 597 

Figures  208  and  209.—  Effigy  pipes ;  unfinished 597 

Figure  210.—  Effigy   pipe ;     toucan 598 

Figure  ail.—  Effigy  pipe ;   unnamed 598 

Figure  212. —  Effigies  ;  eagles 598 

Figure  213.—  Effigy  pipe ;  toad 599 

Figure  214. —  Effigy  pipe ;  possibly  groundhog 599 


List  of  Illustrations.  xv 

PAGE. 

Figure  215. —  Effigy  pipe ;    possibly  hawk  or  eagle 599 

Figure  216. —  Effigy  pipe  ;    unnamed 600 

Figure  217.—  Effigy  pipe ;  coiled  rattlesnake 600 

Figure  218. —  Effigy  pipe ;  said  to  be  an  owl 600 

Figures  219  to  221. —  So-called  ''toucan  pipes,"  and  the  toucan 607 

Figures  222  and  223. —  Effigy  pipes,  wrongly  identified 609 

Figures  224  to  227. —  The  manitus  and  the  so-called  manitus  pipes.  .  612 

Figure  228. —  Effigy  pipe ;  carnivore  with  human  head 613 

Figure  229. —  Effigy  pipe ;  frog 613 

Figure  230. —  Effigy  pipe  ;    owl 614 

Figure  231. —  Rude  effigy  pipes  of  stone  and  clay 615 

Figures  232  and  233. —  Various  forms  of  pipes 615-616 

Figure  234.—  ]\Iap  of  Flint  Ridge 620 

Figure  235. —  Mound  containing  large  disks,  at  Hopewell's 628 

Figure  236.—  Disks,  from  Hopewell  mound 630 

Figure  237.—  Diagram  of  terms  applied  to  flint  implements 633 

Figure  238.— Flake  of  obsidian  and  arrow  head  made  from  it 642 

Figure  239. —  Progressive  stages  in  arrow  head  making 644 

Figures  240  to  242.—  Flints  with  polished  bases 647-649 

Figure  243.—  Flint  knives  or  spear  heads 650 

Figures  244  and  245. —  Flint   knives 651-652 

Figure  246. —  Roughly  finished  knives  or  spear  heads 653  ' 

Figure  247. —  Flint  scrapers 654 

Figure  248.—  Rare  forms  of  knives  and  scrapers 654 

Figure  249. —  Unusual  forms,  probably  for  cutting  or  scraping 655 

Figure  250. —  Illustrating  the  manner  of  drilling  curved  objects 659 

Figure  251.—  Modern  Sioux  pipe  made  of  catlinite 661 

Figures  252  and  253. —  Experiments  in  drilling 662 

Figure  254. —  Flint    drill 662 

Figures  255  to  260.—  Primitive  methods  of  drilling  and  fire-making. 663-664 

Figures  261  and  262. —  Experiments  in  drilling 664 

Figure  263.—  Flint  perforators 665 

Figure  264. —  Bunts  and  scrapers 667 

Figure  265. —  Flint  cores 669 

Figure  266. —  Flint  flakes 671 

Figures  267  and  268.—  Methods  of  hafting  knives  and  arrow  heads. .  .  675 

Figure  269. —  Bone  scrapers  or  skin  dressers 680 

Figure  270.—  Bone  arrow  heads 680 

Figures  271  and  272.—  Piercing,  weaving  and  sewing  tools  of  bone.  .681-682 

Figure  273.—  Manufacture  of  bone  fish  hooks 683 

Figure  274. —  Animal  jaws  cut  into  ornaments 684 

Figure  275.—  Hoe  made  of  a  mussel  shell 685 

Figure  276. —  Hoe  or  scraper  made  of  a  mussel  shell 686 

Figure  277.—  Spoon  made  of  a  mussel  shell 686 

Figure  278.—  Shell   gorget 687 

Figure  279.— Rattlesnake,    carved   in    stone ^%^ 

Figure  280. —  Belts  of  wampum 690 


xvi  List  of  Illustrations. 

PAGE. 

Figures  281  to  285. —  Specimens  of  ancient  pottery 692-695- 

Figure  286.—  Clay  pipes 6^^^ 

Figures  287  and  288.—  Specimens  of  weaving,   from  impressions  on 

pottery 698-699 

Figures  289  and  290. —  Specimens  of  cloth  from  mounds 700-701 

Figure  291. —  Parts  of  mica  crescent 702 

Figure  292. —  Cutting  and  piercing  tools  of  copper 714 

Figure  293. —  Copper  hatchets  or  celts 714 

Figure  294, —  Copper  plate,  with  cloth  adhering 715 

Figures  295  and  296. —  Copper  ornaments,  battered  out  of  form. .  .716-717 

Figure  297. —  Copper  ear-ornaments 718 

Figure  298. —  Antlers  of  wood,  covered  with  copper,  from  Hopewell's.     719 
Figures  299  and  300. —  Copper  symbolic  figures,  from  Hopewell's.  . .  .     720 

Figure  301. —  Copper  eagle,  from  Peoria 722 

Figures  302  and  303.— Copper  plates  of  Mexican  design,  from  Georgia.     72S 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTORY 

FROM  the  first  knowledge  of  our  prehistoric  earthworks 
they  have  aroused  a  steadily  increasing  interest,  with  a 
corresponding  desire  to  learn  something  definite  in  regard 
to  their  builders.  This  hunger  for  information  has,  for  the  most 
part,  been  fed  on  husks.  Most  publications  relating  to  the  sub- 
ject, whether  newspaper  articles  or  bulky  volumes,  are  the  work 
of  relic  hunters,  or  persons  whose  curiosity  is  excited  by  some- 
thing they  have  seen  or  heard,  or  visionaries  seeking  proof  of 
a  pet  hypothesis  —  and  generally  finding  it;  careless,  unskilled, 
and  superficial  observers,  whose  acquaintance  with  the  science 
is  derived  mainly  or  in  some  cases  entirely  at  second-hand,  and 
whose  statements  are  unsafe  to  rely  upon  no  matter  how  hon- 
est their  intentions.  Many  such  have  felt  impelled  to  set  forth 
explanations  and  theories  in  regard  to  recognized  facts,  the 
meaning  of  which  was  to  them  as  a  sealed  book.  Almost  in- 
variably something  is  taken  for  granted;  partial  examination 
of  a  limited  field  becomes  the  basis  of  arbitrary  deductions  re- 
specting a  wide  range  of  country;  hasty  surmises  appear  in  the 
form  of  definite  assertions;  indications  and  possibilities  patched 
together  with  wild  guesses,  are  recorded  as  established  facts. 
Some  works  which  have  attained  a  wude  circulation,  so  far 
from  being  accurate  expositors  of  facts  and  trustworthy  records 
of  scientific  knowledge,  as  they  purport,  are  nothing  more  than 
expressions  of  opinion  by  one  whose  knowledge  is  only  partial, 
generally  incorrect,  and  interpreted  in  the  light  of  very  limited 
personal  investigation.  A  few,  unfortunately,  bear  the  signatures 
of  distinguished  men  whose  successful  work  in  some  other  pro- 
fession or  branch  of  science  gives  to  their  words  the  weight  of 
authority  when  they  decide,  usually  as  a  matter  of  recreation,,, 
to  dabble  in  archaeology.  They  too  often  consider  it  unneces- 
sary to  verify  borrowed  statements,  or  to  do  such  field  work 
as  would  enable  them  to  determine  the  correctness  of  evidence^ 
upon  which  they  proceed  to  build  conclusions ;  they  are  satisfiedi 
1  (1^ 


^  ;  /:.  V  J  \}  ' :  ;    Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

to  cull  from  those  who  have  preceded  them,  put  their  collec- 
tions  together  in  an  attractive  form,  add  a  few  pages  of  com- 
ments and  deductions,  mostly  mere  conjecture,  and  send  forth 
a  volume  which,  being  accepted  without  question  because  of 
the  authors'  reputation,  adds  to  the  general  confusion. 

The  erroneous  and  exaggerated  statements  and  deductions 
contained  in  such  writings  have  been  deemed  sufficient  proof  of  a 
social  organization  such  as  would  be  possible  only  to  a  people 
possessing  a  far  higher  degree  of  culture  than  that  of  any  tribe 
of  American  Indians  of  which  there  is  record  or  tradition;  so 
that  in  the  end,  there  has  been  evolved  a  'lost  civilization"  for 
whose  assumed  existence  writers  largely  ignorant  of  facts  have 
deemed  it  necessary  to  account  by  inventing  a  great  nation  dom- 
inating all  the  country  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf.  There  has  been  pictured 
out  a  dense  population  of  busy  people  living  in  unity  under  fixed 
laws,  despotic  or  indulgent,  hierarchy,  monarchy,  oligarchy,  aris- 
tocracy, anything  but  democracy,  as  may  seem  to  the  author 
best  adapted  to  bringing  about  the  conditions  of  which  he  consid- 
ered himself  the  discoverer  or  sponsor,  but  always  with  the  un- 
derlying principle  of  force  and  fear;  tilling  the  soil,  paying 
tribute,  assembling  periodically  for  adoration  to  a  Great  Spirit 
or  homage  to  rulers,  national  games  or  religious  festivals ;  dig- 
ging mica  in  the  east,  mining  copper  in  the  north,  diving  for 
shells  and  pearls  in  the  south,  working  flint  quarries  in  various 
parts  of  the  Mississippi  Valley;  practicing  unknown  and  un- 
knowable rites  in  the  Scioto  and  Kanawha  Valleys,  animal 
fetichism  in  the  far  west,  sun  worship  on  the  Mississippi.  For 
these  people,  who  are  supposed  to  have  preceded  the  known  In- 
dians, and  to  have  differed  from  them  in  almost  every  respect, 
the  expression  "  Mound  Builders  "  has  been  appropriated  as  a 
distinctive  title;  and  has  been  made  elastic  enough  to  embrace 
the  authors  of  not  only  the  remains  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  but  all 
the  cognate  works  in  the  Unifed  States.  Owing  to  the  vague 
■and  discursive  meaning  usually  attached  to  it,  however,  the 
term,  so  far  from  serving  to  assist  the  general  reader  in  arriv- 
ing at  a  correct  understanding  ot  prehistoric  conditions,  is  really 
an  obstacle  in  his  way.  At  once  his  mind  is  sent  drifting  over 
the  whole  country,  striving  to  comprehend  in  a  single  thought 
all  manner  of  incongruous  peoples  and  occupations.     To  popu- 


Introductory,  8 

lar  conception,  the  Mound  Builder-  is  an  illusory,  mythological 
personage,  who,  in  fairy-book  fashion,  roves  through  the  sunny 
south,  floats  over  'northern  lakes,  traverses  western  prairies, 
wanders  up  and  down  great  rivers.  Reason  or  judgment  can 
lay  no  firm  hold  on  him  in  either  time  or  space.  The  name  ap- 
peals to  imagination  like  a  haunting  strain  from  a  forgotten 
song.  It  conjures  up  the  shadowy  outline  of  a  being  unlike  any 
that  ever  existed  on  earth;  who  combines  in  harmonious  re- 
lation qualities  found  only  in  the  highest  of  educated  races 
with  those  wdiich  never  survive  a  state  of  savagery.  Ignorant 
of  metals,  he  was  a  skillful  engineer ;  without  a  single  animal  that 
could  be  used  as  a  beast  of  burden,  he  was  a  sucessful  farmer; 
with  no  means  of  communication  except  canoes  and  messengers 
on  foot,  a  central  power,  somewhere,  was  kept  fully  informed 
of  all  that  occurred  within  a  radius  of  a  thousand  miles.  More- 
over, almost  his  entire  time  was  spent  in  conducting  some  sort 
of  religious  exercises  or  in  defending  himself  against  the  at- 
tacks of  enemies.  There  passes  before  us  a  panorama  of  priests, 
warriors,  nobles,  despots,  slaves,  a  supreme  ruler,  a  national  re- 
ligion, bloody  wars,  endless  sacrifices,  and  all  the  characteris- 
tics of  an  empire  like  that  of  ancient  Persia  or  Egypt ;  with  the 
turning  of  a  page  we  are  in  the  midst  of  weapons,  fortresses, 
look-out  stations,  ambuscades,  sieges,  battles,  massacres,  and 
"refuges  of  last  resort." 

It  is  rem.arkable  that  persons  able  to  distinguish  between 
the  reasonable  and  the  ridiculous  will  let  their  intellectual 
powers  become  so  blurred  by  thrilling  rhetoric  or  airy  flights 
of  fancy,  as  not  to  perceive  the  self-evident  contradictions  in 
a  large  majority  of  popular  archaeological  writings. 

The  erroneous  prevalent  notions  concerning  native  races 
of  North  America,  whether  of  the  past  or  present,  created 
and  confirmed  by  gross  mistakes  and  manifest  perversions  of 
truth  so  widely  circulated,  are  discouraging  to  those  who  have 
studied  the  subject  and  are  desirous  of  presenting  it  in  the 
proper  light;  and  they  have,  as  a  general  rule,  withstood  the 
attempts  of  experienced  investigators  to  substitute  for  them  more 
correct  ideas  of  native  life.  Sensible  and  conservative  state- 
ments of  men  who  have  classified  the  knowledge  brought  out 
by  spade  and  trowel,  and  compared  it  with  that  recovered  by 
diligent  research  from  ancient  records,  make  a  feebler  impres- 


4  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

sion  than  the  utterances  of  platform  lecturers  or  contributors 
to  popular  periodicals,  who  find  pecuniary  returns  directly  pro- 
portional to  the  glamor  in  which  they  contrive  to  envelop  their 
emanations. 

But  there  have  always  been  some  who  refused  to  accept 
the  prevailing  superstitions.  They  have  preferred  to  examine 
the  material  from  which  the  ideas  are  derived.  For  nearly  a 
century  a  few  delvers  into  the  dust-heaps  of  vanished  races 
have  dug  in  a  methodical  instead  of  a  desultory  manner;  have 
reported  what  they  observed  instead  of  what  unfinished  excava- 
tions may  have  led  them  to  infer.  Their  enthusiasm,  necessary 
for  the  prosecution  of  such  work,  has  been  subordinate  to  com- 
mon sense;  their  deductions  are  based  upon  reason  and  reasons, 
and  not  upon  imagination.  The  wide-spread  mistakes  and  fal- 
lacies regarding  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  United  States, 
need  never  have  come  into  existence,  had  due  regard  been  paid 
to  the  published  material  of  men  who  were  not  content  to  ac- 
cept superficial  indications  as  final  proof.  But,  unfortunately, 
such  publications  were  few  in  number,  concise  in  style,  limited 
in  extent,  and  worse  than  all,  buried  in  ''Proceedings,"  and 
'Transactions,"  and  "Reports,"  of  institutions,  societies,  and 
associations,  and  consequently  as  maccessible  to  the  public  at 
large  as  if  they  had  never  been  issued. 

There  is  always  room  for  difference  of  opinion  on  questions 
which  must  be  solved  by  comparative  or  analytic  study.  But 
in  matters  where  exact  conclusions  can  be  reached  by  any  one 
who  will  be  at  the  trouble  to  investigate  properly,  there  is  but 
one  side.  Systematic  investigation  has  broken  up  this  mythical 
"nation"  into  separate  tribes  whose  relationship  to  one  another, 
if  indeed  there  be  any,  is  very  obscure.  The  variations  in  size, 
design,  outward  appearance,  interior  arrangements  and  contents, 
of  enclosures,  mounds,  earthworks  and  stone  structures,  in  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  country,  compel  a  belief  that  their  inception 
and  construction  is  due  to  several  disconnected  tribes.  The  re- 
mains of  the  upper  half  of  the  Ohio  Valley  are  quite  unlike  those 
toward  its  mouth ;  the  same  is  true  of  the  Tennessee.  The  re- 
gions about  the  lower  lakes,  the  upper  Mississippi,  the  Gulf  States, 
differ  from  one  another,  each  having  its  own  peculiar  class. 
Central  Kentucky  has  some  features  in  common  with  southern 
Ohio  and  with  the  region  south  of  Tennessee,  while  in  other  re- 


Introductory.  6 

spects  it  finds  no  counterpart  elsewhere.  In  short,  the  whole 
Mississippi  Valley  may  be  divided  into  tolerably  well  defined 
districts  not  much  larger  than  the  state  of  Ohio,  each  possess- 
ing a  class  of  remains  which  in  some  respects  is  distinctively 
marked  ofif  from  all  the  others.  It  would  very  much  simplify 
matters  if,  to  each  area  which  properly  constitutes  an  archaeo- 
logical division,  a  name  or  title  could  be  given  which  should 
belong  to  it  alone.  This  would  at  once  bring  the  science  down 
to  a  geographical  basis ;  and  the  soaring  mind  of  the  novice 
instead  of  ambitiously  striving  to  attain  a  height  whence  it  might 
survey  with  sweeping  glance  a  vast  prehistoric  empire,  could 
fold  its  wangs  and  return  to  earth  with  the  hope  of  finding 
something  definite  to  work  on.  So  far  as  the  evidence  now  at 
hand  tends  to  show,  it  would  soon  learn  that  all  this  wondrous, 
complex  "civilization"  rests  upon  no  batter  foundation  than 
earthen  enclosures  demanding  only  ordinary  sighting  and 
easily  contrived  apparatus  to  originate,  patience  and  brute 
strength  to  execute ;  and  the  excavation  from  tumuli  of  articles 
not  surpassing  in  any  respect  similar  things  made  by  modern 
Indian  tribes  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  but  ecstatically 
proclaimed  to  be  equal  in  design  and  finish  to  the  finest  pro- 
ductions of  the  most  skillful  potters,  sculptors,  and  lapidaries 
in  modern  art  centers. 

In  recent  years  archaeological  investigation  has  attracted 
a  large  force  of  careful,  intelligent  field-workers  whose  reports 
are  models  of  scientific  accuracy;  and  men  fully  competent  to 
the  task  have  reviewed  these  records,  condensing  and  comparing 
them,  formulating  working  theories,  making  broad  generaliza- 
tions, bringing  order  out  of  chaos. 

With  all  that  has  been  accomplished,  however,  archaeology, 
as  a  science,  is  yet  in  its  formative  period.  There  are  many  un- 
settled questions  concerning  which  very  different  or  even  oppo- 
site opinions  are  held  by  students  equally  qualified  to  decide, 
so  far  as  thought  and  observation  can  prepare  them;  and  these 
disputed  points  must  await  further  discoveries  for  definite  set- 
tlement. 


CHAPTER  II 


PAIvEOIvlTHIC   MAN 

Paleolithic  Man.     The  Evidence  of  His  Existence.     Objections  to  the 
Evidence.     Necessity  for   Careful  Examination. 

A  — IN  EUROPE 

UNTIL  practical  methods  of  utilizing  metals  were  de- 
vised, weapons  and  implements  for  which  a  greater 
degree  of  hardness  or  a  keener  edge  was  required 
than  was  possible  with  wood  or  bone,  had  to  be  made  of  stone. 
The  period  during  which  these  conditions  prevailed  is  called  the 
Stone  Age.  This  had  two  distinct  divisions;  one  in  which  a. 
fragment  or  pebble  was  brought  to  the  desired  shape  by  com- 
paratively rough  flaking  or  chipping;  and  the  other  when  much 
finer  chipping  came  into  practice,  and  rubbing  or  grinding  was 
also  resorted  to.  The  first  era  is  known  as  the  Paleolithic  (''an- 
cient stone")  ;  the  second  as  the  Neolithic  (''recent  stone").  It  is 
not  to  be  inferred  that  the  later  method  superseded  the  earlier ;  it 
simply  marked  an  advance  in  the  knowledge  and  method  of  work- 
ing in  stone.  The  rudest  patterns  have  been  retained  in  use  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  world  within  recent  times,  and  the  terms 
really  pertain  to  the  form  of  the  implement  and  to  the  process 
by  which  it  is  made,  rather  than  to  its  age.  The  name  "  paleo- 
lith  "  or  "  paleolithic  implement "  is  now  restricted  in  the  main 
to  specimens  mostly  leaf-shaped  or  almond-shaped,  not  reg- 
ular in  outline,  thick  at  the  middle  portion,  rudely  finished,  and 
usually  made  of  flint,  quartzite,  or  argillite  ;  though  other  rocks 
may  be  used  when  these  are  not  to  be  procured.  Most  collectors 
are  familiar  with  them  under  the  name  of  "  turtle-backs.' 

In  England  and  France  a  large  number  and  variety  of  arti- 
cles made  by  human  hands  have  been  discovered  in  undisturbed 
gravel  beds  of  the  glacial  period,  and  in  caves  partially  or  wholly 
filled  with  sediments  of  the  glacial  floods.    At  first  these  attracted. 

(6) 


The  Trenton  Grdvels.  7 

little  attention;  but  when  it  was  realized  they  meant  for  the 
human  race  an  age  far  exceeding  what  any  one  had  ever  im- 
agined, they  naturally  excited  very  great  interest.  Men  of 
highest  scientific  standing  carefully  studied  the  relics  and  the 
deposits  in  which  they  occurred;  and  as  a  result  of  their  inves- 
tigations it  is  now  generally  considered  an  established  fact  that 
man,  physically  the  same  being  that  he  is  today,  lived  in  Europe 
when  a  large  part  of  that  continent  was  covered  with  ice. 
Moreover,  the  character  of  his  handiwork  proves  him  to  have 
been  no  mean  artisan.  His  chipped  flint  implements,  his  carv- 
ings and  etchings  on  bone,  were  fashioned  and  executed  with  a 
delicacy  and  precision  beyond  the  reach  of  many  primitive  tribes 
of  the  present  day.  Such  skill  does  not  belong  to  the  earliest 
stages  of  savagery  or  to  a  life  allied  with  that  of  the  brute  crea- 
tion. It  indicates  a  long  period  of  evolution  toward  an  artistic 
sense;  and  after  this  was  developed  many  centuries  more  would 
be  required  for  the  growth  of  such  accuracy  of  perception  and 
proficiency  in  the  use  of  tools  as  these  objects  denote.  Con- 
sequently the  first  appearance  of  man  in  Europe  must  date 
many  thousands  of  years  in  the  past. 

B  — IN  AMERICA 
THE    '*  TRENTON   GRAVELS" 

When  their  presence  with  the  earliest  known  human  re- 
. mains  in  Europe  was  well  established,  search  was  made  for  them 
in  America.  The  first  investigator,  or  at  least  the  first  to  bring 
them  to  public  notice,  was  Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott,  of  Trenton,  New 
Jersey,  whose  account  of  the  discovery  of  paleolithic  implements 
in  the  Trenton  Gravels  was  practically  the  earliest  record  of  themi 
in  this  country.  (x\bbott,  Chap.  XXXIL)  It  started  a  contro- 
versy that  has  raged  unceasingly,  and  is  apparently  no  nearer  a 
settlement  than  at  the  beginning. 

The  results  of  Dr.  Abbott's  explorations  will  riot  be  de- 
scribed here,  further  than  to  reproduce  a  single  extract  which 
may  be  taken  as  a  fair  example  of  the  discoveries  on  which  his 
theories  are  based.     He  figures  a  specimen 

"Taken  from  the  bluff  facing  the  river,  but  two  miles  farther 
south  than  the  exposure  near  Trenton,  from  which  most  of  the 
specimens    have   been   gathered.     It    was    discovered    in    a    perpendicular 


8  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio.  * 

exposure  of  the  bluff,  immediately  after  the  detachment  of  a  large  mass 
of  material,  and  in  a  surface  that  had  but  the  day  before  been  exposed 
and  had  not  yet  begun  to  crumble.  The  specimen  was  twenty-one  feet 
from  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  within  a  foot  of  the  triassic  clays 
that  are  here  exposed.  Directly  over  it,  and  in  contact,  was  a  boulder 
of  large  size,  probably  weighing  one  hundred  pounds;  while  at  a  distance 
of  five  feet  above  was  a  second  much  larger  boulder.  The  character  of 
the  mass,  which  was  that  of  the  bluff  on  the  bank  of  the  river  near 
Trenton,  was  such  as  to  render  it  impossible  that  this  specimen  could 
have  reached  this  position  subsequently  to  the  deposition  of  the  con- 
taining bed."  — Abbott,  506. 

Various  archaeologists  and  others  visited  this  locality  at 
different  times  after  Dr.  Abbott  has  announced  his  conclusions; 
several  of  whom  found  specimens  similar  to  those  described,  at 
a  depth  which  emphatically  dispelled  any  lingering  suspicion  that 
they  could,  in  any  manner,  have  made  their  way  from  the  sur- 
face to  the  level  at  which  they  were  found.  No  one  questioned 
the  correctness  of  this  view,  though  some  may  have  doubted  it, 
until  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  published  the  result  of  his  investiga- 
tions.    His  position  is  well  shown  in  the  following  citation: 

"  The  evidence  employed  to  prove  the  presence  of  a  race  of  men  in 
the  Delaware  valley  in  glacial  times  is  confined  almost  wholly  to  the 
alleged  discovery  of  rude  implements  in  the  glacial  gravels.  Many 
visitors,  men  of  high  repute  in  archaeology  and  geology,  have  visited  the 
site,  but  the  observations  made  on  such  occasions  appear  not  to  have 
been  of  a  nature  to  be  of  great  value  in  evidence,  being  doubtful  works 
of  art  or  not  having  properly  established  relationships  with  the  gravels 
in  place.  I  have  elsewhere  shown  that  they  are  not  demonstrably  imple- 
ments in  any  case,  that  they  are  identical  in  every  respect  with,  the 
quarry-shop  rejects  of  the  American  Indian,  that  they  do  not  closely 
resemble  any  one  of  the  well-established  types  of  European  paleolithic 
implements,  and  that  they  are  not  a  sufficient  index  of  a  particular  stage 
of  culture. 

"  The  gravels  at  Trenton  were  exposed  in  a  steep,  nearly  straight 
bank,  several  hundred  yards  in  length,  the  base  of  which  was  washed 
by  the  river.  There  can  be  no  question  that  Dr.  Abbott  and  others 
have  found,  shaped  objects  of  various  classes  upon  the  face  of  this  river 
bluff".  Dr.  Abbott  explicitly  states  that  he  has  obtained  certain  of  these 
specimens  from  the  great  outcrops,  and  that  they  were  not  in  talus  form- 
ations, but  in  undisturbed  deposits.  How,  then,  is  it  possible  to  do 
otherwise  than  accept  these  statements  as  satisfactory  and  final? 

"  It  happened  last  summer  that  the  city  authorities  decided  to 
open  a  great  sewer  through  this  very  bluff  to  get  a  lower  outlet  to  the 
river.  A  trench  twelve  feet  wide  and  some  thirty  feet  deep,  the  full 
depth  of  the  exposed  gravels,   was   carried  along  the  bluff   just  inside 


The  Trenton  Gravels.  9 

of  its  margin.  At  no  point  for  the  entire  length  of  the  bluff  did  the 
excavation  depart  more  than  forty  feet  from  the  length  of  the  terrace 
face — from  the  upper  margin  of  the  slope  upon  which  such  plentiful 
evidence  of  a  supposed  gravel  man  had  been  obtained.  The  opportunity 
for  studying  the  gravels  in  all  their  phases  of  bedding,  composition  and 
contents,  was  really  excellent,  and  no  one  could  watch  the  constantly 
renewed  exposures  hour  after  hour  for  a  month  without  forming  a  most 
decided  notion  as  to  the  implement  bearing  qualities  of  the  formation. 
Not  the  trace  of  a  flaked  stone,  or  of  a  flake  or  artificial  fragment  of  any 
kind  was  found,  and  we  closed  the  work  with  the  firm  convictions  that 
the  gravels  exposed  by  this  trench  were  absolutely  barren  of  art.  But 
Dr.  Abbott  claims  to  have  found  numerous  implements  in  the  bluff  face 
a  few  feet  away  and  in  the  same  gravels.  If  this  is  true,  the  conditions 
of  glacial  occupation  of  this  site  must  have  been  indeed  remarkable. 
It  is  implied  that  during  the  whole  period  occupied  by  the  melting  of 
the  ice-sheet  within  the  drainage  of  the  Delaware  valley  the  hypothetical 
rude  race  lived  on  a  particular  line  or  zone  afterwards  exposed  by  the 
river  to  the  depth  of  thirty  feet,  leaving  his  strange  tools  there  by  the 
hundreds,  while  another  line  or  zone,  not  more  than  forty  feet  away 
at  most,  exposed  to  the  same  depth  by  an  artificial  trench,  was  so  avoided 
by  him  that  it  does  not  furnish  the  least  memento  of  his  presence.  One 
vertical  slice  of  the  gravel  twelve  feet  thick  does  not  yield  even  a  broken 
stone,  while  another  slice  not  probably  one-half  as  thick,  cut  obliquely 
through  the  gravels  near  by,  has  furnished  abundant  material.  That 
no  natural  line  of  demarkation  between  the  two  section  lines  is  possible 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  formations  are  continuous,  and  that  the 
deposits  indicate  a  constant  shifting  of  lines  and  areas  of  accumulation 
of  the  glacial  deposits ;  thus  it  was  impossible  for  any  race  to  dwell 
continuously  upon  any  spot,  line  or  plane.  The  gravels  were  laid  down 
entirely  irrespective  of  subsequent  cutting,  natural  or  artificial ;  yet  we 
are  expected  to  believe  that  a  so-called  gravel  man  could  have  resorted 
for  a  thousand  years  to  the  space  a,  leaving  his  half-shaped  or  incipient 
tools  at  all  stages  of  the  gravel  building  from  base  to  top,  failing  entirely 
to  visit  a  neighboring  space  b  only  a  few  yards  away,  or  to  leave  there 
a  single  flake  to  reward  the  most  faithful  search.  The  easier  explanation 
of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the  objects  found  by  Dr.  Abbott  were  not 
really  in  the  gravels,  but  that  they  ^re  Indian  shop-refuse  settled  into 
the  old  talus  deposits  of  the  bluff. 

"  But  this  case  does  not  stand  alone.  The  first  discoveries  of 
supposed  gravel  implements,  are  said  to  have  been  made  when  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railway  opened  a  road  bed  through  the  creek  terrace  on  the 
site  of  the  present  station.  At  first  numerous  specimens  of  rudely  flaked 
stones  were  reported  and  the  locality  became  widely  known  to  archae- 
ologists, but  the  implement-bearing  portion  of  the  gravels — and  this  is 
a  most  significant  fact — were  limited  in  extent,  and  the  deposit  was 
soon  completely  removed,  the  horizontal  extension  containing  nothing. 
At  present  there  are  excellent  exposures  of  the  full  thickness  of  the 
gravels  at  this  point,  but  the  most  diligent  search  is  vain,  the  only  result 


10  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  days  of  examination  being  a  deep  conviction  that  these  grades  are 
and  always  were  wholly  barren  of  art.  It  thus  appears  that  here  as 
well  as  upon  the  river  front,  the  works  of  art  were  confined  to  local 
deposits,  limited  horizontally,  but  not  vertically,  and  a  strong  presump- 
tion is  created  that  the  finds  were  confined  to  redistributed  gravels  settled 
upon  the  terrace  face  in  the  form  of  talus. 

"  That  the  art  remains  of  the  Trenton  region  are  essentially  a  unit,, 
having  no  natural  separation  into  time,  culture  or  stock  groups,  is  easily 
susceptible  of  demonstration.  I  have  already  presented  strong  reasons 
for  concluding  that  all  the  finds  upon  the  Trenton  sites  are  from  the 
surface  or  from  recent  deposits,  and  that  all  may  reasonably  be  assigned 
to  the  Indian.  A  find  has  recently  been  made  which  furnishes  full 
and  decisive  evidence  upon  this  point.  At  Point  Pleasant,  on  the  Del- 
aware, some  twenty-five  miles  above  Trenton,  there  are  outcrops  of  argil- 
lite,  and  here  have  been  discovered  recently  the  shop  sites  upon  which  this 
stone  was  worked. 

"  There  are  two  features  of  these  shops  to  which  the  closest  attention 
must  be  given.  The  first  is  that  they  are  manifestly  modern;  they  are 
situated  on  the  present  flood  plain  of  the  Delaware,  and  but  a  few  feet 
above  average  water  level,  the  glacial  terrace  here  being  some  forty  or 
fifty  feet  in  height.  These  shops,  therefore,  represent  the  most  modern 
phase  of  aboriginal  industry.  The  second  point  is  that  every  type  of  flaked 
argillite  found  in  the  Trenton  region,  associated  with  the  gravels  or 
otherwise,  is  found  on  this  site.  Here  are  found  great  numbers  of  the 
rude  failures,  duplicating  every  feature  of  the  mysterious  'paleolith'  with 
which  our  museums  are  stocked,  and  exhibiting  the  same  masterly  quit- 
ting just  at  the  point  'where  no  further  flaking  was  possible.'  The  evi- 
dence relating  to  paleolithic  art  in  the  eastern  United  States,  so  imposing 
in  books  and  museums,  shrinks  away  surprisingly  as  it  is  approached. 
The  evidence  furnished  by  the  bluff  face  and  by  the  railway  cutting, 
the  two  leading  sites,  is  fatally  weakened  by  the  practical  demonstration 
of  the  fact  that  the  gravels  proper  are  at  these  points  barren  of  art 
remains.  The  articles  themselves,  the  so-called  gravel  finds,  when 
closely  studied,  are  found  to  tell  their  own  story  much  more  fully  and 
accurately  than  it  has  heretofore  been  read  by  students  of  archaeology. 
This  story  is  that  the  art  of  the  Delaware  valley  is  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  a  unit,  that  there  is  nothing  unique  or  especially  primitive  or 
ancient  and  nothing  un-Indian  in  it  at  all.  All  forms  are  found  on 
demonstrably  recent  sites  of  manufacture.  The  rude  forms  assigned 
by  some  to  glacial  times  are  all  apparently  'wasters'  of  Indian  manufac- 
ture. The  large  blades  of  'Eskimo''  type  are  only  the  larger  blades,  knives 
and  spear  points  of  the  Indian  separated  arbitrarily  from  the  body  of  the 
art-remains  to  subserve  the  ends  of  a  theory.  The  question  asked  in  the 
beginning,  'Are  there  traces  of  man  in  the  Trenton  gravels?'  if  not  an- 
swered decisively  in  the  negative,  stands  little  chance,  considering  present 
evidence,  of  being  answered  in  the  affirmative."  —  Holmes,  Trenton, 
17,    ct  seq. 


The  Trenton  Gra-oels.  11 

On  the  other  hand,  Professor  G.  F.  Wright,  an  ardent  advo- 
cate of  Dr.  Abbott's  views,  in  reply  to  this  and  other  articles 
of  Mr.  Holmes,  says  :  — 

"The  sum  of  Mr.  Holmes's  effort  amounts,  however,  to  little 
more  than  the  statement  that,  with  a  limited  amount  of  time  and  labor, 
neither  he  nor  his  assistants  had  been  able  to  find  any  implements  in 
undisturbed  gravel  in  any  of  these  places;  and  the  suggestion  of  various 
ways  in  which  he  thinks  it  possible  that  the  observers  mentioned  may 
have  been  deceived  as  to  the  original  position  of  the  implements  found. 
But,  as  had  been  amply  and  repeatedly  published,  Professor  J.  D. 
Whitney,  Professor  Lucian  Carr,  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler,  Professor 
F.  W.  Putnam,  of  Harvard  University,  besides  Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott,  all 
expressly  and  with  minute  detail  describe  finding  implements  in  the 
undisturbed  gravel  at  Trenton,  which  no  one  denies  to  be  of  glacial 
origin.  In  the  face  of  such  testimony,  which  had  been  before  the 
public  and  freely  discussed  for  several  years,  it  is  an  arduous  under- 
taking for  Mr.  Holmes  to  claim  that  none  of  the  implements  have  been 
found  in  place,  because  he  and  his  assistants  (whose  opportunities  for 
observation  had  scarcely  been  one-twentieth  part  as  great  as  those  of 
the  others)  had  failed  to  find  any."  —  Wright,  2nd.,  xii. 

And  again  :  — 

"  Mr.  Holmes  has  made  a  general  attack  upon  all  the  evidence  of 
glacial  man  in  America;  but  the  most  which  he  proves  is  that  he  him- 
self has  not  found  any  direct  evidence,  while  the  various  hypotheses 
to  which  he  resorts  to  discredit  other  witnesses  are  far  more  improb- 
able than  the  existence  of  glacial  man  is.  It  is  necessary  to  state  also 
that  his  drawings  of  the  supposed  condition  of  the  gravel  banks  when 
the  implements  were  found  are  grossly  misleading,  and  some  of  them 
absolutely  impossible;  while  one  of  the  theories  to  which  both  he  and 
Professor  Chamberlin  *  *  *  continually  resort  to  account  for  the 
possible  burial  of  implements  at  a  depth  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  in 
the  gravel  is  abundantly  disproved  by  facts.  The  theory  is  that  the 
implements  may  have  worked  down  through  the  holes  made  by  the  decay 
of  the  tap-roots  of  trees;  but,  besides  the  fact  that  no  instance  of  that 
sort  has  ever  been  observed,  there  is  superabundant  evidence  at  Trenton, 
N.  J.,  that,  while  flint  and  jasper  implements  are  very  abundant  in  the 
upper  foot  of  surface  soil,  below  that  level  only  argillite  implements  are 
found.  Over  a  considerable  area,  however,  Mr.  Ernest  Volk  assures 
me  that  there  is  not  a  square  yard  of  the  Trenton  terrace  that  will  not 
yield  some  argillite  chippings  below  the  depth  of  two  feet.  To  credit 
the  tap-roots  of  trees  with  the  intelligence  required  to  sort  out  argillite 
fragments  from  flint,  and  permit  them  alone  to  settle  in  the  gravel,  is 
more  than  even  a  well-supported  theory  could  endure.  In  short,  Mr. 
Volk's  extensive  and  careful  excavations  at  Trenton,  under  the  direction 
of  Professor  Putnam,  are  establishing  beyond  all  controversy  the  correct- 
ness of  the  early  inferences  both  of  Dr.  Abbott  and  Professor  Putnam, 


12  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

that  there  were  three  well-marked  periods  of  occupation  of  the  Delaware 
Valley  by  the  human  race,  namely,  'the  Palaeolithic  or  the  oldest,  the 
flaked  argillite  or  middle,  and  the  Jasper  or  Indian.'" —  Wright,  4th,  xiv. 

The  reader  may,  if  he  chooses,  peruse  several  volumes  and 
many  articles  in  scientific  and  other  journals,  upon  this  subject, 
only  to  find  that  he  has  the  gist  of  them  in  the  above  quotations. 
While  Professor  Wright  is  one  of  a  large  company,  Mr.  Holmes 
also  has  many  adherents  ;  and  neither  side  shows  any  inclina- 
tion to  recede  from  the  advanced  position  it  has  taken.  There 
was  sufficient  evidence  of  this  at  the  American  Association  meet- 
ing for  1897,  where  the  question  of  artificial  objects  in  the  Tren- 
ton gravels  was  thoroughly  discussed.  A  brief  resume  of  each 
speaker's  statement  is  appended  : 

F.  W.  Putnam. — "I,  for  one,  am  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  objects 
are  of  the  same  age  as  the  deposit  in  which  they  are  found.  That  the 
region  of  the  Delaware  valley  was  inhatited  by  man  in  very  early  times 
is  beyond  doubt.  He  must,  moreover,  have  been  somewhere  on  the 
continent,  while  these  early  deposits  were  forming,  to  have  reached 
this  spot  at  the  close  of  the  glacial  period  when  the  region  became  habit- 
able.   It  is  for  the  geologists  to  tell  us  the  age  of  these  deposits." 

H.  B.  Kummel. — "The  deposit  in  which  the  implements  occur  is, 
in  my  opinion,  dune-sand,  accumulated  after  the  river  had  partly  or 
completely  excavated  its  trench  below  the  level  of  the  Trenton  terrace." 

J.  G.  Knapp. — "  It  is  my  opinion,  based  on  a  recent  visit  to  the  spot, 
that  the  implement-bearing  sand  deposits  were  of  wind  origin,  accumu- 
lated since  the  river  had  cut  its  trench  below  the  level  of  the  upper 
Trenton  terrace." 

R.  D.  Salisbury. — "The  relic-bearing  sand  may  be  of  aqueous  origin, 
dating  from  the  close  of  the  last  glacial  epoch;  it  may  be  of  aqueous 
origin  of  later  age;  and  it  may  be  seolian.  Whatever  its  origin,  it  may 
safely  be  said  that  the  surface  material  down  to  the  lowest  depth  at  which 
the  relics  have  been  found  has  been  so  disarranged  that  no  affirmation 
can  be  made  concerning  the  origin  of  the  relics  it  contains." 

G.  F.  Wright. — "  The  evidence  that  the  implements  found  forty-one 
inches  below  the  present  surface,  and  only  five  inches  above  the  action 
of  acknowledged  glacial  floods,  belong  to  the  deposits  of  the  glacial 
floods,  is  sufficient,  I  believe,  to  convince  any  one  who  comprehends  all 
the  facts." 

W.  H.  Holmes. — "In  1892  a  great  sewer  trench,  33  feet  deep,  was 
cut,  parallel  with  the  river  bank,  at  the  very  point  where  so  many 
shaped  stones  had  formerly  been  found.  Though  we  kept  up  the  search 
in  this  trench  for  five  weeks  as  the  work  of  excavation  went  on — not  a 
chip  was  found,  not  a  trace  of  man.  The  conclusion  reached  is  that  there 
must  have  been  an  error  in  the  observations  that  could  produce  hundreds 
of  flaked   stones  from  obscure  or  partial  outcrops  at  a  given  spot  in  a 


The  Trenton  Gravels.  IS 

crumbling  bank  when  not  a  trace  can  be  found  at  the  same  point  when 
the  beds  are  fully  exposed.  It  may  be  regarded  as  substantially  proved 
that  the  glacial  gravels  proper  contain  no  relics  of  art." 

H.  C.  Mercer. — "  I  was  forced  to  conclude  that  a  significant  number 
of  artificial  chips  rested  in  situ  in  the  sand,  and  hence  were  of  an  age 
antedating  its  deposition.     The  age  of  the  sand  remains  to  be  settled." 

Arthur  Hollick. — "  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  this  sand  is  a 
water  deposit,  and  is  of  glacial  age.  There  is  apparently  no  break  in 
the  sequence  of  deposition  from  the  coarse  gravel  below,  through  the 
fine  sand  containing  clay  seams,  up  to  the  surface  soil, — the  entire  series 
representing  successive  periods  of  flood  and  sedimentation." 

Thomas  Wilson. — "  The  entire  examination  on  which  all  these  con- 
clusions are  founded,  except  that  of  Holmes  based  on  the  trench,  had 
no  bearing  upon  the  paleolithic  period,  nor  upon  the  existence  of  paleo- 
lithic man,  nor  on  any  of  the  objects  of  his  industry.  The  stratum  of 
glacial  gravels,  to  which  the  paleolithic  objects  are  claimed  to  belong  and 
wherein  the}^  have  been  found,  was  not  examined  nor  considered.  If 
the  sand  is  glacial,  man  is  glacial;  if  it  is  not,  the  question  is  just  where 
it  was  at  the  beginning. ' 

T.  C.  Chamberlin. — "  It  seems  to  me  in  so  far  as  this  question  is 
typical  of  the  problem  of  glacial  man,  it  should  put  all  of  us  in  an 
attitude  of  firm  conviction  that  at  present  there  is  no  positive  evidence, 
and  in  that  negative  attitude  we  can  rest.  As  to  the  existence  of  man  in 
America  in  the  glacial  period,  I  know  of  no  evidence  today  that  is  of 
scientific  value  bearing  on  that  point." 

R.  D.  Salisbury. — "As  to  whether  we  would  not  regard  the  imple- 
ment found  underneath  the  boulder  as  having  been  in  place  in  the  gravel, 
I  would  say,  most  emphatically  no.  The  river  undercuts  the  bluff.  Most 
emphatically  anything  found  behind  a  boulder  on  the  slope  would  be  open 
to  great  suspicion." 

E.  W.  Claypole. — "  The  evidence  that  we  have  been  discussing  this 
afternoon  is,  as  you  know,  entirely  in  regard  to  Trenton,  and  has  no 
bearing  on  other  localities." 

W  J  McGee. — "Fifteen  years  ago  there  was  hardly  an  archaeologist 
who  did  not  regard  the  Trenton  region  as  affording  conclusive  evidence 
of  glacial  man ;  today  the  manner  in  which  the  evidence  has  been  torn  to 
shreds  is  apparent  to  every  one."  — A.  A.  A.  S.,  1897,  347-390. 

Years  before  this,  however,  Lewis  had  said  : 

"  The  geological  investigations  along  the  Delaware  Valley,  *  *  * 
throw  quite  a  new  light  upon  this  subject.  They  show  that  the  im- 
plement-bearing gravel  is  of  post-glacial  age,  and  is  a  river  deposit  of 
comparatively  recent  formation;  and  that  neither  in  the  gravels  of  the 
Champlain  epoch,  nor  in  deposits  of  any  previous  age  have  any  traces  of 
man  been  discovered.  The  evidence  appears  to  indicate  the  appearance 
of  man  at  a  time  which,  geologically  considered  at  least,  is  recent."  "It 
was  very  interesting  to  find   that   it   was   only  within  the  limits   of  the 


14  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Trenton  gravel  *  *  *  that  Dr.  Abbott  found  implements  below  the 
surface." 

"The  conclusions  to  which  the  facts  seem  to  point  may  briefly  be 
summarized  as  follows  : — 

"1.  That  the  Trenton  gravel,  the  only  gravel  in  which  implements 
occur,  is  a  true  river  deposit  of  post-glacial  age,  and  tne  most  recent  of 
all  the  gravels  of  the  Delaware  Valley. 

"  2.  That  the  paleoliths  found  in  it  really  belong  to  and  are  a  part  of 
the  gravel,  and  that  they  indicate  the  existence  of  man  in  a  rude  state 
at  the  time  when  the  flooded  river  flowed  on  top  of  this  gravel. 

"3.  That  the  data  obtained  do  not  necessarily  prove,  geologically 
considered,  an  extreme  antiquity  of  man  in  Eastern  America."  —  Lewis, 
Gravel,  306-9. 

In  another  place,  Lewis  says  : 

"  The  Trenton  gravel  is  truly  a  post-glacial  deposit,  but  still  a 
phenomenon  of  essentially  glacial  times  —  times  more  nearly  related  to 
the  Great  Ice  Age  than  to  the  present.  No  implements  could  have  come 
into  this  gravel  except  at  a  time  when  the  river  flowed  upon  it,  and 
when  they  might  have  sunk  through  the  loose  and  shifting  material.  At 
the  time  of  the  Trenton  gravel  flood  man  lost  his  stone  implements  in 
the  shifting  sands  and  gravel  of  the  bed  of  that  stream."  —  Lewis:  Gravel, 
339,  condensed. 

"  It  may  be  that,  as  investigations  are  carried  further,  it  will 
result  not  so  much  in  proving  man  of  very  great  antiquity  as  in  showing 
how  much  more  recent  than  is  usually  supposed  was  the  final  disappear- 
ance of  the  glacier."  —  Lewis:  Gravel,  340. 

In  substance,  then,  we  are  told,  in  regard  to  the  geological 
formation  :  — 

That  the  gravels  and  sands  were  deposited  by  floods  from  the  glacier 
in  the  period  when  this  was  at  its  greatest  development. 

That  they  were,  if  glacial  at  all,  due  to  a  glacier  of  more  recent 
origin  than  the  one  which  carried  down  material  found  a  short  distance 
away. 

That  they  were  not  laid  down  until  the  glacier  had  much  receded, 
and  were  then  washed  down  and  spread  out  by  the  river. 

That  the  upper  portion  of  the  deposit  was  blown  in  from  the  sur- 
rounding country  and  spread  out  by  the  winds. 

As  to  the  specimens  m  dispute :  — 

The  lower  ones  are  genuine  paleoliths,  similar  in  every  respect 
■except  material,  to  those  of  undoubted  glacial  age  found  in  Europe. 

They  are  broken,  imperfect,  and  rejected  specimens  of  modern  Indian 
manufacture. 

They  are  found  promiscuously  in  the  entire  area,  at  all  depths. 


Glacial  Man  in  Ohio.  15 

They  are  confined  to  the  surface,  or  to  the  talus  formed  by  crumbling 
banks,  or  to  other  situations  whither  they  have  come  from  a  higher  level. 

Different  materials  and  types  are  stratified  in  regular  order. 

All  sorts  are  found  at  the  same  level. 

The  whole  series  denotes  three  distinct  periods  of  occupation  and 
•of  culture,  reaching  back  to  an  immeasurable  antiquity. 

They  are  all  of  one  general  class,  and  belong  to  one  era,  which 
there  is  no  necessity  for  believing  to  cover  more  than  a  few  centuries. 

When  men  of  such  ability,  who  have  devoted  much  time  to 
a  close  investigation  of  the  region,  are  unable  to  come  to  an 
agreement  on  any  one  of  the  important  points  at  issue,  a  person 
less  informed  has  no  right  even  to  hold  an  opinion,  much  less 
to  express  one,  upon  any  phase  of  the  matter. 

GLACIAL   MAN    IN   OHIO 

The  discovery  of  these  implements  at  Trenton,  led  arch- 
aeologists to  believe  that  similar  vestiges  of  man's  presence  could 
be  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  and  its  principal  tributaries. 
The  series  of  gravel  beds  in  the  two  regions  are  practically  of 
the  same  age,  belonging  to  the  period  immediately  following 
the  recession  of  the  ice-sheet  after  it  had  reached  its  south- 
ernmost limit  ;  and  were  deposited  by  the  great  floods  result- 
ing from  the  melting  ice.  Consequently,  Ohio  archaeologists 
have  a  direct  interest  in  Trenton  gravels  and  in  the  evidence 
they  contain  of  human  life.  The  final  decision,  whatever  it  may 
be,  as  to  the  existence  of  man  at  that  time  and  place,  will  apply 
equally  to  our  own  state.  What  is  true  of  one  locality,  in  this 
respect,  is  true  of  the  other.  Should  the  scientific  world  agree 
that  the  specimens  over  which  the  warfare  is  waged  are  un- 
doubtedly the  work  of  ''  glacial  man,"  no  reason  can  be  urged, 
so  far  as  is  now  to  be  seen,  for  assigning  a  different  origin  to 
Ohio  relics  found  under  the  same  conditions.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  decided  that  the  American  Indian,  using  that  tern? 
in  its  ordinary  accepted  meaning,  is  the  author  of  the  so-called 
*'  paleoliths  "  of  the  Delaware  valley,  similar  implements  found 
in  Ohio,  regardless  of  the  conditions  under  which  they  occur, 
must  take  their  place  in  the  same  classification.  The  future  may, 
however,  disclose  something  which  will  modify,  or  even  reverse 
this  assertion. 


16  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

Thus  far,  objects  which  seem  to  indicate  the  presence  of 
man  in  Ohio  prior  to  the  final  disappearance  of  the  ice-sheet, 
have  been  found  in  four  different  sections  of  the  state.  The 
first  was  recorded  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Metz,  who  in  1885,  "  discovered 
a  flint  implement  of  paleolithic  type  in  undisturbed  strata  o£ 
the  glacial  terrace  of  the  Little  Miami,"  at  Madisonville.  It 
was  eight  feet  below  the  surface.  (Wright,  250.)  The  formation: 
in  which  it  was  found  is  gravel  and  coarse  sand,  of  a  grayish 
color ;  on  this  is  about  eight  feet  of  fine  grained  sand-and-clay  soil, 
having  the  yellowish  color  characteristic  of  alluvial  deposits  in 
this  region.  The  implement  is  formed  from  a  small  pebble  of 
basanite.  One  end  had  not  been  worked,  but  retains  the  natural 
surface  ;  this  has  the  rounded,  water-worn  appearance  common 
to  stones  from  streams  or  gravel  beds.  On  the  chipped  portion 
the  small  facets  produced  by  removal  of  the  flakes  are  smooth 
and  glossy;  the  angles  where  they  meet  are  sharp  as  if  recently 
made.  The  dirt  has  oeen  thoroughly  cleaned  from  its  surface; 
but  in  minute  crevices  the  microscope  shows  a  fine-grained, 
yellowish  deppsit,  closely  resembling  the  surface  soil  and  totally 
different  from  the  coarse  gray  sand  in  which  it  was  imbedded. 

This  specimen  was  found  in  a  partially  completed  cistern; 
one  of  the  diggers  noticed  it  sticking  in  the  wall,  and  pointed 
it  out  to  Dr.  Metz,  who  first  noted  its  position  and  then  removed 
it  with  his  own  hands.  There  can  be  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  Dr.  Metz  found  it  in  exactly  the  place  and  condition  he 
describes.  How  it  got  there  is  another  question.  Mr.  Holmes 
says  in  regard  to  it  :  — 

"  I  have  examined  the  specimen  *  *  *  and  find  it  to  be  identical 
in  every  essential  feature  with  typical  rejects  of  the  modern  blademaker, 
lacking  the  least  indication  of  specialization.  It  is  not  safe  to  call  it  an 
implement,  no  matter  what  its  age,  and  to  present  it  as  evidence  of 
paleolithic  culture  is  little  short  of  folly."  —  Holmes,   Traces,   154, 

In  1887  Dr.  Metz  found  another  implement  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river  from  Loveland,  a  few  miles  from  Madisonville. 
This  was  thirty  feet  beneath  the  surface.  (Wright,  250.)  It  is 
coarsely  chipped  and  has  evidently  been  through  a  rather  rough 
experience,  as  the  facets  and  edges  are  blunt  and  rounded  in  just 
such  manner  as  would  result  from  attrition  against  other  stones 
in  a  strong  current. 


Glacial  Man  in  Ohio.  17 

"On  carefully  examining  the  Loveland  specimen,  I  found  it  partly 
covered  with  dark,  well-compacted  earth,  resembling  the  soil  of  the 
surface  of  the  terrace,  rather  than  the  light-colored,  fine-grained  calcareous 
powder  characterizing  the  matrix,  such  as  there  is,  of  the  gravel  deposits." 
—  Holmes,  Ohio,  163. 

The  next  discover}-  was  at  Newcomerstown,  Tuscarawas 
county,  w^here  in  1889,  W.  C.  Mills  found 

"  A  finely  shaped  flint  implement  sixteen  feet  below  the  surface  of 
the  terrace  of  glacial  gravel.  Except  for  the  difference  in  the  material 
from  which  it  is  made,  it  would  be  impossible  to  distinguish  it  from  [a 
certain  type  of  paleolithic  implement  found  in  France].  The  similarity 
of  pattern  is  too  minute  to  have  originated  except  from  imitation."  — 
Wright,   250-1. 

The  last  sentence  is  a  little  obscure.  If  there  was  any  way 
in  which  glacial  man  at  Newcomerstown  could  have  found  the 
opportunity  to  exercise  his  powers  of  "  imitation  "  at  such  long 
range  as  to  the  region  of  Central  France,  the  method  should 
be  fully  explained  and  not  left  to  conjecture. 

Later  it  vv'as  explained  explicitly  that 

"  Mr.  Mills  found  this  specimen  projecting  from  a  fresh  exposure 
of  the  perpendicular  bank,  fifteen  feet  below  the  surface.  He  thrust 
his  cane  into  the  coarser  gravel  which  is  seen  to  overlie  the  finer  deposits. 
This  resulted  in  detaching  a  large  mass  about  six  feet  long  and  two 
feet  wide,  which  fell  down  at  his  feet.  It  was  in  the  face  of  the  bank 
behind  this  mass  that  Mr.  Mills  discovered  the  implement.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  mistake  concerning  the  undisturbed  character  of  the  gravel 
from  which  he  took  the  implement.  All  the  strata  were  clearly  exposed 
and  observed  by  him."  —  Wright,   1893. 

When  Mr.  Holmes  visited  this  place,  the  gravel  bank  had 
been  so  altered  by  the  removal  of  material  for  railway  ballast 
that  he  was  compelled  to  study  parts  several  feet  from  where 
the  implement  was  obtained  ;  but  the  general  character  of 
the  whole  mass  was  so  uniform  that  he  felt  justified  in  certain 
inferences  concerning  the  manner  in  which  it  may  have  reached 
the  spot  where  found.  The  publication  of  his  report  brought 
the  following  criticism  from  Professor  Wright. 

"In  the  case  of  the  discovery  at  Newcomerstown,  Mr.  Holmes  is 
peculiarly  unfortunate  in  his  efforts  to  present  the  facts,  since,  in  en- 
deavoring to  represent  the  conditions  under  which  the  implement  was 
found  by  Mr.  Mills,  he  has  relied  upon  an  imaginary  drawing  of  his  own^ 
in  which  an  utterly  impossible  state  of  things  is  pictured.  The  claim  of 
2 


18  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  Holmes  in  this  case,  as  in  the  other,  is  that  possibly  the  gravel 
in  which  the  implements  were  found  had  been  disturbed.  In  some 
cases,  as  in  Little  Falls  and  at  Madisonyille,  he  thinks  the  implements 
may  have  worked  down  to  a  depth  of  several  feet  by  the  overturning 
of  trees  or  by  the  decay  of  the  tap-root  of  trees.  A  sufficient  answer  to 
these  suggestions  is,  that  Mr.  Holmes  is  able  to  find  no  instance  in  which 
the  overturning  of  trees  has  disturbed  the  soil  to  a  depth  of  more  than 
three  or  four  feet,  while  some  of  the  implements  in  these  places  had 
been  found  buried  from  eight  to  sixteen  feet.  Even  if,  as  Mr.  Cham- 
berlin  suggests,  fifty  generations  of  trees  have  decayed  on  the  spot 
since  tlic  retreat  of  the  ice,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  that  would  help 
the  matter,  since  the  effect  could  not  be  cumulative,  and  fifty  upturnings 
of  three  or  four  feet  would  not  produce  the  results  of  one  upturning  of 
eight  feet.  Moreover,  at  Trenton,  where  the  upturning  of  trees  and 
the  decaying  of  tap-roots  would  have  been  as  likely  as  anywhere  to  bury 
implements,  none  of  those  of  flint  or  jasper  (which  occur  upon  the  sur- 
face by  tens  of  thousands)  are  buried  more  than  a  foot  in  depth;  while 
the  argillite  implements  occur  as  low  down  as  fifteen  or  twenty  feet. 

"To  discredit  the  discoveries  at  Trenton  and  Newcomerstown,  Mr. 
Holmes  relies  largely  upon  the  theory  that  portions  of  gravel  from  the 
surface  had  slid  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  terrace,  carrying  implements 
with  them,  and  forming  a  talus,  which,  he  thinks,  Mr.  Mills,  Dr.  Abbott, 
and  the  others  have  mistaken  for  undisturbed  strata  of  gravel.  In  his 
drawings  Mr.  Holmes  has  even  represented  the  gravel  at  Newcomers- 
town  as  caving  down  into  a  talus  without  disturbing  the  strata  to  any 
great  extent,  and  at  the  same  time  he  speaks  slightingly  of  the  promise 
which  I  had  made  to  publish  a  photograph  of  the  bank  as  it  really  was. 
In  answer,  it  is  sufficient  to  [refer],  first,  [to]  the  drawing  made  at 
the  time  by  Mr.  Mills,  to  show  the  general  situation  of  the  gravel  bank 
at  Newcomerstown,  in  which  the  implement  *  *  *  was  found;  and, 
secondly,  [to]  an  engraving  from  a  photograph  of  the  bank,  taken  by 
Mr.  Mills  after  the  discovery  of  the  implement,  but  before  the  talus  had 
-obscured  its  face.  The  implement  was  found  by  Air.  Mills  with  its  point 
projecting  from  a  fresh  exposure  of  the  terrace,  just  after  a  mass, 
loosened  by  his  own  efforts,  had  fallen  away.  The  gravel  is  of  such 
consistency  that  every  sign  of  stratification  disappears  when  it  falls  down, 
and  there  could  be  no  occasion  for  a  mistake  even  by  an  ordinary  observer, 
while  Mr.  Mills  was  a  well-trained  geologist  and  collector,  making  his 
notes  upon  the  spot."  —  Wright,  2nd.,  XIII. 

Part  of  Mr.  Holmes'  conclusions  were  based  upon  certain 
observations  which  are  thus  stated  :  — 

"At  Warsaw,  in  Coshocton  County,  fifty  miles  west  of  New- 
comerstown, I  visited  an  exposure  of  gravels  in  a  railway  cutting,  the 
conditions  being  almost  identical  with  those  at  Newcomerstown.  The 
terrace,  as  in  the  other  case,  has  been  occupied  by  Indian  flint  workers, 
and  being  in   the   proximity   of   extensive   flint   quarries,    there   is   much 


Glacial  Man  in  Ohio.  19 

refuse  of  manufacture.  *  *  *  The  redistributed  deposits  along  the 
base  of  the  steep  slope  were  well  reset,  and  from  these  I  obtained  a 
number  of  flaked  flints;  several  of  which  were  firmly  imbedded,  and 
two  of  them  were  removed  from  the  gravel  with  some  difficulty  and 
with  the  aid  of  a  pick,  one  twenty-five  and  the  other  twenty-seven  feet 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  terrace.  *  *  *  In  a  case  like  this  even  the 
experienced  scientific  observer,  whose  attention  had  not  been  definitely 
called  to  the  nature  and  far-reaching  significance  of  such  finds,  might 
from  a  casual  observation  have  recorded  the  discovery  of  one  or  more 
of  these  objects  from  the  gravel.  *  *  *  These  specimens  were  in  the 
gravels,  firmly  imbedded,  and  to  all  appearances  this  particular  portion 
of  the  deposit  was  in  a  normal  condition."  —  Holmes,   Ohio,   167. 

In  summing  up  the  evidence  for  and  against  the  claim  of 
great  antiquity  for  these  three  specimens,  Mr.  Holmes  con- 
cludes :  — 

"  The  finds  are  not  demonstrably  implements  but  have  the  char- 
acteristics rather  of  rejects  of  manufacture."  —  Holmes,  Ohio,   170. 

The  next  discovery  of  this  character  is  reported  as  follows. 
It  seems  convincing;  but  there  has  been  no  discussion  of  it. 

"  Below  Brilliant,  Jefferson  County,  Ohio,  a  very  fine  remnant  of 
high-level  river  terrace  ranges  from  sixty-five  to  eighty  feet  above  low 
water.  Excavations  in  this  terrace  to  a  depth  of  forty-three  feet  show  it 
to  consist  of  interstratified  sand,  fine  gravel,  and  clay  in  small  quantities, 
all  with  rare  exceptions  cross-bedded.  Coarse  gravel  is  found  at  the 
top  of  the  terrace;  but,  except  for  two  or  three  feet  on  top,  only  rare 
pieces  of  gravel  occur  of  more  than  one-half  cubic  inch  in  size.  At  the 
southern  end  of  this  terrace  I  found  a  plainly-marked  but  rude  flint  im- 
plement imbedded  in  the  freshly  exposed  face  of  the  stratified  sand 
and  gravel,  under  about  eight  feet  of  undisturbed  cross-bedded  strati- 
fication, only  the  point  of  the  implement  showing  on  the  perpendicular 
face  of  the  excavation.  The  condition  of  the  stratification  in  all  of  the 
superincumbent  eight  feet,  which  was  closely  examined  by  me,  was  such 
as  to  convince  me  that  the  implement  was  not  intrusive,  but  had  been 
deposited  with  the  remainder  of  the  material  from  the  terrace. — Sam 
Huston."  —  Wright,   1895,   condensed. 

Finally  Nev/  London,  Huron  county,  yields  several  spec- 
imens found  under  circumstances  which  are  difficult  to  explain 
on  any  hypothesis  that  does  not  assign  to  them  an  extreme  age. 
Chief  in  interest  is  one  bearing  no  resemblance  whatever  to  any- 
thing ordinarily  classed  as  paleolithic,  but  presenting,  neverthe- 
less, stronger  proof  of  the  existence  of  man  in  Ohio  before  the 


20  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

close  of  the  glacial  period,  than  does  any  of  the  other  imple- 
ments recorded.     An  abstract  of  the  evidence  is  given. 

"Mr.  E.  E.  Masterman,  of  New  London,  Ohio,  found  a  grooved 
stone  axe  two  miles  from  that  town,  at  a  depth  of  twenty-two  feet.  The 
upper  eight  feet,  from  the  surface,  was  a  very  firm  clay,  yellow  above 
and  blue  below,  with  small  stones;  under  this  were  thirteen  feet  of  silty 
material,  very  tough  toward  the  bottom  and  requiring  the  use  of  a  pickaxe 
for  its  removal.  Interbedded  in  this  were  streaks  of  sand  one  or  two 
inches  thick.  Last  was  about  one  foot  of  coarse  gravel,  yielding  water, 
and  containing  some  small  subangular  stones.  Beneath  all  this  was  a 
very  tough,  blue  clay  impervious  to  water.  Imbedded  to  about  one-half 
its  thickness  in  this  last  clay,  lay  the  implement.  It  is  a  grooved  stone 
axe  four  inches  long,  two  inches  wide,  and  one  inch  and  a  half  thick. 
It  is  made  of  the  hard,  banded,  green  slate  so  common  in  the  drift  of 
some  parts  of  Ohio.  It  is  deeply  weathered  and  pitted,  so  that  on  the 
surface  it  looks  like  a  piece  of  ordinary  'rotten  stone';  this  weathering 
extends  to  the  very  middle,  there  remaining  only  a  trace  of  the  original 
stone  retaining  the  green  color  and  hardness.  Concentric  limonite  stains 
furnish  conclusive  proof  that  the  whole  process  has  taken  place  since 
the  stone  received  its  present  form.  It  would  be  utterly  impossible  to 
produce  such  an  implement  fraudulently.  It  was  deposited  when  the  thin 
gravel  bed  in  which  it  lay  was  formed,  as  it  lay  directly  upon  the 
boulder  clay.  The  natural  surface  is  a  plain,  with  no  quarry-face  or 
water-course  within  a  long  distance.  The  thin  streaks  of  sand  in  the 
clay  absolutely  preclude  any  supposition  that  the  ground  had  been 
previously  disturbed,  while  the  great  depth  (twenty-two  feet)  and  the 
nature  of  the  soil  passed  through  exclude  all  other  theories  that  have 
been  advanced  in  similar  cases  to  account  for  the  presence  of  imple- 
ments in  glacial  gravels,  such  as  falling  into  cracks,  rotten  root  holes, 
etc.  If  there  is  no  other  origin  or  date  for  the  fine  clay  and  streaks  of 
sand  that  overlie  it  than  that  which  assigns  them  to  late  glacial  time 
then  the  tool  must  be  set  down  to  the  same  epoch  and  must  be  considered 
the  work  of  glacial  man."  —  Claypole,   304,   et  seq.,   condensed. 

"The  geological  situation  at  New  London,  Ohio,  is  this:  The 
watershed  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ohio  is  but  a  few  miles 
to  the  south,  and  drains  to  the  north  through  the  main  valley  of  Ver- 
million River.  The  land  about  New  London  is  level  for  several  miles, 
and  is  about  two  hundred  feet  below  the  summit  of  the  watershed. 
There  is  no  opportunity  for  any  disturbances  to  have  occurred  sub- 
sequent to  the  glacial  period;  but  in  the  retreat  of  the  ice  from  the 
watershed  a  temporary  glacial  lake  doubtless  occupied  the  upper  part  of 
the  valley  of  Vermillion  River,  emptying  its  waters  into  a  tributary  of 
the  Mohican,  and  thence  into  the  Muskingum  and  the  Ohio.  But  this 
lake  evidently  did  not  exist  for  a  great  length  of  time. 

"  Heretofore  numerous  flying  reports  of  the  discovery  of  imple- 
ments in  the  glacial   till   have  been  made,    but  this   is  the  first  instance 


Glacial  Man  in  Ohio.  21 

•where  the  evidence  has  seemed  in  itself  altogether  convincing  and  satis- 
factory." —  Amer.  Nat.,  October,   1896,  784. 

Such  is  the  evidence  offered  so  far,  of  paleolithic  man  m 
Ohio  ;  five  specimens  from  four  localities.  The  New  London 
ax  is  neolithic  in  form,  material  and  finish  ;  no  relic  of  the  sort 
has  ever  been  exhibited  or  reported  as  occurring  with  the  pal- 
eolithic objects  of  Europe,  and  it  differs  from  modern  axes  in 
no  other  respect  than  its  extreme  alteration  from  weathering. 
Even  if  the  latter  condition  is  due  to  greater  energy  of  chemical 
elements  in  the  earth  surrounding  it,  the  great  depth  at  which 
it  was  found  and  the  apparent  integrity  of  overlying  strata, 
afford  better  evidence  of  its  antiquity  that  can  be  claimed  for 
the  chipped  objects.  The  unbroken  layers  above  the  latter, 
though  very  strong  testimony  in  their  favor,  do  not  constitute 
positive  proof.  When  a  bank  or  face  is  formed  by  excavation, 
erosion,  or  otherwise,  in  a  glacial  deposit,  it  is  quite  possible 
for  a  mass  of  sand,  clay  and  gravel  to  fall  or  slide  from  a  higher 
to  a  lower  level  without  in  the  least  disturbing  the  regular  ar- 
rangement of  the  strata.  A  good  example  of  this  was  shown 
some  years  ago  in  a  gravel  pit  at  Weaver's  Station  in  Darke 
county.  The  workmen  came  to  a  thick  layer  of  fine  sand,  about 
fifteen  feet  below  the  surface,  which  they  dug  out  as  far  as  they 
could  reach  with  their  shovels  leaving  a  cave  or  recess  beneath 
the  undisturbed  strata  above.  With  the  next  period  of  wet 
weather  this  mass  slipped  down  so  gradually  that  although 
the  bottom  was  pushed  out  far  enough  to  cover  the  track  at  its 
base,  there  was  not  the  slightest  crack  in  the  upper  part  along 
a  distance  of  more  than  thirty  feet.  Both  ends  of  the  dis- 
lodged mass,  however,  were  so  broken  as  to  resemble  ordinary 
talus.  If  by  any  chance  a  worked  stone  found  its  way  into  the 
cavity  left  by  the  workmen,  it  may  some  day  come  to  light  and 
furnish  prima  facie  evidence  of  glacial  man  in  a  new  locality. 

During  his  explorations  in  a  mound  27  feet  high,  in  Florida, 
Mr.  Moore  found  trouble  because 

"  So  great  was  the  height  of  the  mound  that  frequent  slides  of 
masses  of  sand  were  unavoidable,  and  thus  exact  depths  of  objects  found 
were  often  unobtainable,  though  at  times  close  estimates  were  to  be  had 
since  sections  of  the  mound,  sliding  down  a  few  feet  as  a  whole,  retained 
their  integrity,  holding  undisturbed  human  remains  and  associated  objects." 
—  Moore,   Duval,  33. 


22  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

An  object  found  in  the  vicinity  of  a  stream,  at  a  depth  less 
than  the  bottom  of  its  bed,  is  not  to  be  accepted,  no  matter  what 
its  form  or  its  situation,  as  unquestionably  the  handiwork  of 
paleolithic  man.  A  hole  cut  in  a  bank  by  one  flood  will  often 
be  filled  by  the  next  one;  and  in  a  short  time  this  place  can 
hardly  be  distinguished  from  the  natural  deposits  around  it.'  A 
layer  of  compact  material  may  be  left  standing  as  a  shelf  on 
which  caving  banks  above  will  pile  maiterial  that  will  soon 
become  equally  solid.  Either  process  may  be  repeated  in  the  same 
spot;  and  surface  specimens  can  easily  be  carried  into  such 
places  and  buried  from  sight.  Furthermore,  the  streams  in 
the  glaciated  districts  of  Ohio  have  worn  their  beds  from  the 
level  of  the  highest  terraces  bordering  them,  to  that  at  which 
they  are  now  found;  this  erosion  was  much  more  rapid  in 
former  times  than  at  present.  The  shifting  of  such  streams 
from  side  to  side  of  the  alluvial  lands  through  which  they  flow 
is  also  quite  rapid  in  some  cases;  it  being  not  unusual  for  a 
river  or  creek  to  change  its  course  scores  of  yards  in  a  single 
generation,  cutting  away  the  earth  on  one  side  and  filling  it  in 
at  a  lower  level  on  the  other.  With  a  rapid  current  to  carry 
away  the  detritus,  a  stream  will  in  this  manner  often  produce 
a  nearly  vertical  bank  to  the  top  of  any  terrace  against  which  it 
may  impinge  ;  and  when  it  again  makes  its  way  toward  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  valley,  denudation  will  give  to  this  bank  a  slope 
whose  inclination  will  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  ma- 
terial and  the  length  of  time  given  to  atmospheric  agencies  for 
their  action.  These  alterations  have  been  continually  in  prog- 
ress since  drainage  was  established  along  its  present  lines.  The 
terraces  with  a  thickness  of  fifty  feet  or  more  along  our  rivers 
and  creeks  owe  their  formation  to  precisely  the  same  causes 
that  are  daily  creating  the  minor  bars  along  the  shores  of  these 
streams  ;  the  difference  is  merely  in  the  diminished  forces  now 
at  work.  The  most  skilled  glacialist  is  liable  to  be  deceived  by 
the  arrangement  of  secondary  terraces.  It  will,  be  apparent 
therefore,  that  great  caution  is  to  be  exercised  by  those  who  are 
seeking  for  paleolithic  implements ;  many  things,  as  mdicated 
above,  are  to  be  taken  into  consideration.  There  are  various- 
ways  in  which  a  stone  implement  that  was  once  on  top  of  the 
ground,  or  in  the  soil  near  the  top,  may  now  be  found  in  clean, 
gravel    much  below   the   present   surface,    some    distance    from- 


Glacial  Man  in  Ohio.  23 

the  nearest  stream  or  at  a  considerable  elevation  above  it;  or 
may  be  covered  by  a  mass  of  earth  nearly  equal  in  thickness  to 
the  highest  gravel  bank  whose  foot  is  reached  by  the  water. 
The  discovery  of  an  implement,  no  matter  how  rudely  finished, 
under  such  circumstances,  is  by  no  means  to  be  accepted  as  in- 
dubitable evidence  that  man  existed  in  that  locality  during  glacial 
floods.  To  establish  beyond  controversy  the  fact  of  human 
existence  during,  or  at  the  close  of,  the  glacial  period,  it  must  be 
shown  that  these  implements  are  scattered  promiscuously 
throughout  gravel  which  has  remained  as  it  was  originally  de- 
posited ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  prove  incontestably  that  the 
gravel  or  sand  in  which  the  specimen  occurs  still  retains  the 
exact  position  and  condition  in  which  it  was  laid  down  at  the 
beginning.  The  latter  fact  can  be  determined  only  by  geologists 
who  have  made  a  close  and  careful  study  of  such  deposits  in 
every  phase  of  their  complicated  structure. 

The  question  must  remain  an  open  one  until  the  claims  of 
those  who  advocate  and  those  who  deny  that  man  lived  in  Ohio, 
or  in  America  for  that  matter,  while  the  ice-sheet  held  dominion, 
are  less  open  to  dispute  than  they  are  at  present.  Even  should 
every  assertion  yet  made  of  discoveries  in  the  drift  be  substan- 
tiated, the  age  of  man  would  not  be  carried  to  such  a  remote 
time  as  many  assume. 

"  Not  a  few  cases  have  been  brought  forward  in  which  human  relics 
have  been  found  in  such  association  with  glacial  deposits  as  to  point 
strongly  to  the  conclusion  that  both  were  of  the  same  age.  But  in  all 
these  cases  the  deposits  in  question  belong  to  the  very  latest  stages  of 
the  Glacial  era  and  were  the  work  of  the  retreating  ice  or  even  of  the 
torrents  that  flowed  from  it  after  the  area  in  which  the  remains  were 
found  had  been  left  bare.  Consequently,  if  every  one  of  these  cases  was 
logically  unassailable,  and  its  evidence  positively  conclusive,  the  only 
inference  would  be  that  man  was  a  denizen  of  North  America  during  the 
final  withdrawal  of  the  ice,  that  he  hung  Esquimaux-like  on  its  borders 
and  followed  it  as  it  withdrew  to  the  northward.  Of  any  earlier  date 
than  this,  therefore,  for  man  in  North  America  we  have  no  evidence 
whatever."  —  Claypole,  302. 

It  is  probable  that  reports  of  discoveries  of  this  character 
will  multiply  with  the  increase  of  excavations  of  glacial  deposits  ; 
there  are  many  persons  who  are  given  to  such  "  practical  jokes  " 
as  making  false  statements  regarding  circumstances  under  which 
specimens  are.  found,  or  deftly  concealing  desirable  objects  in 


24  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

places  where  they  are  being  sought.  Nor  is  it  at  all  difficult  to  find 
a  laboring  man  who  will  embrace  the  opportunity  of  adding  a 
dollar  to  his  day's  wages  wlien  he  can  get  it  by  sticking  into 
the  sand  at  the  bottom  of  a  cellar  or  cistern  a  rude  specimen 
which  he  has  picked  up  on  the  surface,  and  cahing  the  attention 
of  a  collector  to  it.  All  the  greater  need,  then,  for  one  to  whom 
may  not  have  been  afforded  the  opportunity  for  a  large  field 
of  study,  to  be  chary  of  hasty  deductions.  Such  practices  are 
by  no  means  uncommon  or  of  recent  origin;  early  in  the  cen- 
tury the  same  warning  was  uttered. 

"  That  some  persons  have  purposely  lost  coins,  medals,  etc.,  etc.,  in 
caves  which  they  knew  were  about  to  be  explored ;  or  deposited  them  in 
tumuli,  which  they  knew  were  about  to  be  opened,  is  a  well-known  fact 
which  has  occurred  at  several  places  in  the  western  country."  —  At- 
water,   120. 

There  is  one  question  which  has  never  been  answered  in 
a  satisfactory  manner;  namely,  how  did  these  relics  get  to  the 
places  where  they  are  found?  The  sharp  angles,  unworn  facets, 
and  general  ''  new  "  appearance  of  such  specimens  as  that  from 
Madisonville,  prove  them  never  to  have  been  subjected  to  the 
abrasion  which  rounded  the  quartz  and  diorite  pebbles  associated 
with  them.  If  it  be  claimed  that  they  were  lost  at  or  near  the 
spots  where  we  find  them,  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  losers 
being  on  the  icy  waters?  Certainly  no  people  ^ble  to  manufac- 
ture boats  of  any  kind  would  have  failed  to  make  tools  with  which 
the  boats  could  be  constructed.  Aquatic  animals  could  not  be 
reached  from  the  shore  ;  and  while  some  land  animals  may 
have  fled  to  the  water  when  wounded,  and  their  bodies  been  car- 
ried out  of  reach,  some  trace  of  their  bones  must  survive  along 
with  the  weapon  to  which  their  death  was  due.  None  have  been 
reported.  Neither  has  any  trace  of  a  habitation  been  found. 
In  warm  countries  naked  savages  may  rove  at  will,  subsisting 
on  natural  products  of  the  soil  and  such  animals  as  they  can 
knock  over  with  clubs  ;  but  living  at  the  foot  of  a  glacier  they 
would  require  shelter  and  clothing  more  substantial  than  could 
be  prepared  with  these  rudely  chipped  flints.  If  they  had  better 
tools,  we  should  find  them  ;  if  they  had  not,  we  can  not  under- 
stand how  they  lived  in  their  frigid  climate.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  these  be  surface  specimens  that  have  in  some  mysterious  way 


Deeply  Buried  Modern  Objects.  25 

made  their  way  into  the  earth,   why  do  we  not  find  more  of 
them  ;    and  why  do  we  not  find  finished  articles  as  well? 

There  are  continual  reports  in  newspapers  and  other  pub- 
lications regarding  the  occurrence  of  some  object  or  other  at  a 
very  great  depth  or  under  circumstances  which,  if  true,  would 
set  it  back  to  a  very  remote  date.  Many  of  them  are  as  well 
authenticated  as  stories  of  finding  aboriginal  relics  in  the  drift. 
As  examples,  a  few  quotations  follow,  whose  authors  were  toler- 
ably accurate  observers  and  who  would  indorse  no  statement  of 
whose  truth  there  seemed,  to  them,  to  be  any  reasonable  doubt. 
It  is  safe  to  assert  that  in  every  case  such  as  these  some  signifi- 
cant fact  has  been  overlooked,  which  would  explain  in  a  rational 
manner  the  seemingly  marvelous  discovery.  If,  however,  the 
reports  be  correct,  some  of  them  are  far  more  remarkable  than 
the  discovery  of  paleoliths  or  any  other  implements  under  any 
depth  of  gravel. 

Schoolcraft  refers  to  "the  discovery  [before  1818]  of  a  small  antique- 
shaped  iron  horse-shoe,  found  twenty-five  feet  below  the  surface  in  grad- 
ing one  of  the  streets  [presumably  at  Marietta],  and  the  blunt  end,  or 
stump  of  a  tree,  at  another  locality,  at  the  depth  of  ninety-four  feet, 
together  with  marks  of  the  cut  of  an  axe,  and  an  iron  wedge."  —  School- 
craft, 17. 

"At  Portsmouth,  Ohio,  six  or  seven  [large  sea-shells]  were  found 
buried  in  the  soil,  beneath  the  parallels  of  the  great  work.  They  were 
at  a  depth  of  twenty-five  feet  in  river  alluvium."  —  Whittlesey,  Works,  19. 

Schoolcraft  reports  that  at  Shawneetown  salt-works  a  pot 
of  8  or  lo  gallons  capacity  was  found  at  a  depth  of  8c  feet. — 
Drake:  Ab.  Races,  62. 

Short  quotes  a  statement  of  Dr.  Furness  :  — 

"  Near  Waynesville,  Ohio  about  the  year  1824,  on  top  of  the  hill  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Little  Miami  River  forty  or  fifty  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  stream,"  a  well-digger  "at  the  depth  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  feet 
came  to  a  dark  mould  about  two  feet  deep,  on  the  top  of  which  was  a 
thimble  and  a  piece  of  coarse  cloth."  "The  removal  above  after  passing 
through  the  soil  consisted  of  solid  clay  of  a  yellowish-brown  color."  — 
Short,  126. 

It  is  stated  that  Dr.  Edward  Orton  believed  the  find  au- 
thentic ;  though  no  explanation  is  forthcoming  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  these  articles  may  have  reached  the  place  where  found. 

"  Dr.  McMurtrie  relates  in  his  'Sketches  of  Louisville'  that  an  iron 
hatchet  was  found  beneath  the  roots  of  a  tree  at  Shippingport,  upwards 


26  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  200  years  old."  He  mentions  "that  walls  of  bricks  and  hewn  stones- 
have  been  discovered  in  the  western  country" — presumably  prehistoric. 
These  were  "about  18  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground;"  while  the 
discoverers  "who  came  upon  them  in  digging"  were  examining  their  find 
"water  broke  in  upon  them  and  they  were  obliged  to  make  a  hasty 
retreat."  —  Drake:  Ab.  Races,  62. 

In  the  excavation  of  the  Louisville  canal  "the  workmen  came,  at 
the  depth  of  fourteen  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  calcareous  rock  to  a 
brick  hearth,  covered  with  what  appeared  to  be  the  remains  of  charcoal 
and  ashes."  —  Schoolcraft,  20. 

"Col.  C.  C.  Jones,  of  Augusta,  Georgia,  recorded  the  finding  of 
some  rudely-chipped,  triangular-shaped  implements  in  Nacoochee  valley, 
which  in  material,  manner  of  construction,  and  in  general  appearance,  so 
nearly  resemble  some  of  the  rough,  so-called  flint  hatchets  belonging  to 
the  drift  type  that  they  might  very  readily  be  mistaken  the  one  for  the 
other.  A  cutting  had  been  made  through  the  soil  and  the  underlying 
sands,  gravels,  and  boulders  down  to  the  bed-rock.  Resting  upon  this, 
at  a  depth  of  some  nine  feet  from  the  surface,  were  the  three  implements 
described.  But  the  great  terminal  moraine  lies  more  than  four  hundred 
miles  away  to  the  north,  and  consequently  these  objects  do  not  fall  within 
our  definition  of  true  paleolithic  implements.  The  same  thing  may  be 
said  in  a  less  degree  of  the  implements  discovered  in  the  gravels  and  clays 
of  the  valleys  of  the  James  River."  —  Winsor :  History,  I,  344,  con- 
densed. 

"C  T.  Wiltheiss  incloses  testimony  of  A.  J.  Templeton  and  Joseph. 
Defrees  with  reference  to  finding  two  tablets  in  a  gravel  bank  within  the 
corporate  limits  of  Piqua,  Ohio,  on  the  land  of  Wilson  Morrow.  One 
of  these  tablets  was  15  feet  from  the  surface,  which  was  covered  with  four- 
feet  of  loam.  On  the  surface  of  the  object  were  'characters'  and  in 
the  center  lead  was  inserted.  The  second  was  found  the  next  day  in 
the  loose  gravel  which  had  caved  down."  —  Sm.  Rep.,  1881,  Editor's, 
abstract. 

Wiltheiss  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence,, 
a  close  observer,  and  was  firmly  convinced  that  these  tablets  were 
found  in  undisturbed  earth  at  the  depth  mentioned.  The  lead,, 
however,  is  sufficient  proof  that  they  were  not  prehistoric. 

"  In  the  State  of  Ohio,  near  Chillicothe,  was  found  a  stump,  with 
the  marks  of  an  axe  upon  it,  Od  feet  below  the  surface." 

"  In  the  summer  of  1819,  not  far  from  Franklinton,  on  the  Scioto^ 
in  digging  a  well,  after  the  workman  had  descended  sixty  feet,  he  found 
a  piece  of  brass,  the  remains  of  a  boiler,  and  a  part  of  a  tree,  which  had 
been  partly  burnt."  —  Haywood,   302. 

I'his  may  be  one  of  the  stumps  referred  to  In  the  next  ex- 
tract ;  although  the  author  says  they  "  were  found  at  the  depth 
of  sixty  feet,  in  digging  a   well." 


Deeply  Buried  Modern  Objects.  27 

"One  writer  has  said,  that  they  had  evidently  been  cut  by  a  metallic 
instrument — that  the  marks  of  an  axe  were  visible,  and  that  chips,  in  a 
state  of  perfect  preservation,  were  found  on  and  near  them.  Another 
has  stated  that  the  rust  of  iron  was  seen  on  them ;  and  a  third  has  affirmed 
that  an  axe  was  found  near  them.  Neither  of  these  statements  is  true." 
—  Burnet,  Letters,  36. 

This  story  is  like  that  of  "  the  three  black  crows."  Dr» 
Edward  Orton  stated  that  the  chips  were  not  made  by  any  in- 
strument, but  resulted  from  the  gnawing  of  the  (extinct)  giant 
beaver. 

"I  have  seen  at  Portsmouth,  Ohio,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  River, 
fire  hearths  more  ancient  than  the  earthworks  at  that  place."  —  Whittlesey, 
Relics,  125. 

The  correctness  of  this  statement  is  very  doubtful.  Fire- 
places and  ash-beds  are  not  at  all  uncommon  along  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio,  at  varying  depths  beneath  the  surface,  but  they  are  in- 
variably in  ground  that  is  subject  to  overflow  and  gradually  in- 
creasing in  elevation.  They  are  never  observed  in  the  higher 
terraces  when  these  are  encroached  upon  by  the  river.  The 
fact  that  human  remains  of  any  sort  are  found  at  a  lower  level 
than  the  earth- works, '  does  not  mean  for  them  a  greater  age, 
unless  they  are  in  the  same  terrace  on  which  the  earth-works 
stand ;  and  this  is  not  the  case  with  the  fire  places. 


This  chapter  will  be  closed  with  an  abstract  of  the  most 
remarkable  report  upon  discoveries  of  this  nature  that  has  ever 
been  published. 

"At  Blue  Banks,  about  one  and  a  half  miles  above  Portsmouth, 
Ohio,  there  are  many  old  fireplaces.  *  *  *  They  occur  at  various  levels, 
from  near  the  top  of  the  bank  to  about  thirty  feet  beneath.  At  one  point 
there  are  seventeen  different  levels  on  which  they  are  visible.  There  are 
three  different  classes  of  these  fireplaces.  Those  on  the  lower  levels  show 
only  a  burned  streak  of  clay  from  five  to  eight  feet  in  diameter,  with  but 
a  slight  concavity,  on  which  are  found  ashes,  charcoal,  burned  stones  and 
bones,  with  an  occasional  fragment  of  pottery,  composed  of  broken  stone 
and  clay.  At  about  twenty  feet  down  they  are  most  numerous,  and  many 
of  them  are  from  one  to  three  feet  deep,  and  are  lined  with  flat  stones. 
The  clay,  outside  the  stone,  bears  evidence  of  intense  heat.  In  some 
instances  they  are  nearly  filled  with  ashes  and  charcoal.  The  pottery  from 
within  them  is  composed  of  shell  and  clay.  Above  the  latter  level,  while 
not  so  numerous,  they  are  more  interesting,   from  the  fact  that  more  or 


28  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

less  fine  relics  are  obtained  from  them.  They  are  only  slightly  concave, 
and  mixed  with  the  ashes  are  stones  broken  by  the  action  of  fire,  bones  of 
various  kinds — some  calcined,  arrow-heads,  drills,  stone  and  hematite 
celts,  stone  pipes,  perforated  stones  called  shuttles,  and  much  broken  potr- 
tery — many  pieces  being  nicely  ornamented  with  lines,  etc.  These  old 
fireplaces  *  *  *  extend  along  up  the  river  at  intervals  for  twenty-eight 
miles.  *  *  *  About  two  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto,  there 
are  also  a  few  of  them  exposed,  at  a  depth  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet. 
They  are  generally  called  '  ovens ' ;  this  probably  arises  from  the  fact 
that  the  clay  around  the  basin-shaped  beds  is  burned  so  hard  that  the 
water  often  washes  them  out  in  large  pieces,  and  when  a  half  section  of 
one  of  them  is  exposed  it  looks  like  a  large  clay  kettle.  *  *  *  j^g  f^rst 
occupants  used  stone  in  the  manufacture  of  their  pottery.  They  were 
succeeded  by  others  who  used  shell,  who  in  turn  gav.e  way  to  people  using 
stone.  The  latter  seem  to  have  occupied  the  ground  for  only  a  brief  period 
when  they  were  displaced  by  those  using  shell.  In  the  adjoining  fields, 
however,  both  kinds  of  pottery  are  found  intermingled."  —  Lewis. 

The  foregoing  statement  impresses  one  as  being  a  record  of 
actual  conditions,  carefully  studied.  Yet  there  is  not  the  slight- 
est evidence  of  any  such  fire-places  as  those  described.  More 
than  that,  the  character  of  the  formation  in  which  they  are  said 
to  occur,  is  such  as  to  refute  the  idea  that  they  ever  existed. 
"  Blue  Banks  "  is  a  mass  of  clay  which  successive  floods  have 
deposited,  a  little  at  a  time,  in  a  shallow  gulley  or  a  little  bay 
cut  out  at  some  former  time  by  swirls  and  eddies.  Such  deposits 
are  found  by  the  hundred  along  the  Ohio.  They  also  fill  aban- 
doned portions  of  beds  of  small  streams  which  have  made  new 
channels  for  themselves  in  the  alluvial  earth.  Generally,  but 
not  always,  these  clay  cores  are  covered  with  more  or  less  soil. 
They  almost  invariably  extend  below  water  level,  so  that  even 
at  the  river's  lowest  stages  no  other  material  than  clay  is  to  be 
seen  ;  while  at  either  side  of  the  intrusive  deposit  a  stratum  of 
gravel  and  sand  imderlies  the  silt. 

Careful  examination  of  the  "  Blue  Banks  "  formation  over 
every  foot  of  its  exposed  surface,  fails  to  reveal  a  trace  of  the 
features  claimed  by  Lewis.  The  clay  is  laminated  or  thinly 
stratified,  and  checkered  by  extremely  fine  crevices,  many  of 
them  requiring  close  scrutiny  to  detect.  Percolating  water, 
charged  with  iron  leached  from  the  clay,  has  partially  followed 
these  crevices,  partly  spread  itself  out  on  more  compact  layers. 
Where  the  included  mineral  has  been  re-deposited,  it  stams  the 
earth  yellow,  brown,  or  red,  exactly  simulating  the  efifect  pro- 


Supposed  Ancient  Firebcds.  29 

duced  by  burning.  In  many  cases  concretionary  action  has  given 
curved  outlines  to  the  discolored  earth  ;  and  when  the  deposit 
is  very  heavy  it  may  form  a  clay-ironstone,  which,  as  it  dries, 
breaks  into  angular  plates.  These  features  could  be  mistaken 
for  fire-pits  and  stone  linings. 

The  whole  deposit  is  penetrated  here  and  there  by  roots 
of  ancient  sycamores  and  cotton-woods,  which  are  quite  black, 
as  is  usual  in  such  circurwstances ;  while  piles  of  leaves,  accu- 
mulated on  the  bottom  and  afterwards  covered  by  mud,  are 
macerated  and  carbonized  until  they  closely  resemble  powdered 
charcoal. 

There  are  no  ashes  ;  but  there  is  a  grayish  silt,  fine  as 
flour,  which  is  so  like  them  as  to  deceive  any  one  not  familiar 
with  it.  In  fact,  many  mounds  which  are  reported  as  consisting 
largely  of  "  ashes  "  are  composed  of  this  clayey  silt. 

The  works  of  art  come  from  the  surface  of  the  terrace. 
When  the  upper  portion  of  the  bank  caves  down  the  relics  go 
with  it  ;  and  the  current  washing  away  the  loose  fine  loam, 
leaves  them  in,  or  on,  the  more  solid  earth  settling  on  the  shore. 
Into  this  they  are  forced  by  the  weight  of  compact  masses, 
containing  at  times  several  hundred  cubic  feet,  Iwhich  ^lide 
down  bodily  at  every  flood.  Or  they  may,  by  the  same  means, 
be  covered  to  a  considerable  depth  and  long  afterward  revealed 
by  erosion. 

A  vertical  distance  of  thirty  feet  from  the  terrace  surface 
at  "  Blue  Banks  "  can  be  seen  only  when  the  Ohio  is  very  low. 
At  a  good  boating  stage,  that  is  for  seven  or  eight  months  in 
the  year,  at  least  one-half  of  the  face  of  the  clay  bank  is  covered 
by  water.  Much  more  of  it  must  have  been  submerged,  then, 
in  past  times  when  the  bed  of  the  stream  had  not  scoured  out  to 
its  present  depth. 

Whatever  may  be  the  basis  of  the  statements  quoted,  it  is 
absolutely  certain  that  no  sign  is  now  visible  of  fire-places  in 
these  clays  ;  nor  of  any  worked  objects  except  such  as  may  have 
fallen  from  above  and  become  imbedded  in  the  manner  here 
described. 

If  the  asserted  conditions  were  true  of  any  part  of  the 
"  Blue  Banks  "  deposit  that  has  been  destroyed  by  the  river, 
then  we  must  concede  that  men  familiar  with  all  phases  of  a  life 
out  of  doors  would  make  camps  on  clay  which,  when  wet,  is  as 


30  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

slippery  as  soap ;  that  they  would  establish  them  where,  at  first, 
a  very  slight  rise  in  the  river  would  cover  the  site ;  that  they  would 
continue  to  utilize  the  same  spot  year  after  year,  possibly  for  cen- 
turies, in  periods  of  low  water,  and  that  intervening  freshets 
would  deposit  a  thin  layer  of  clay  over  each  successive  level  of 
occupancy  without  displacing  even  the  ashes  and  charcoal  left 
on  it ;  that  through  all  this  unknown  length  of  time  there  was  an 
absolute  sameness  of  pottery,  and  toward  the  upper  part,  of  man- 
ufactured articles  identical  with  surface  finds  belonging  to  mod- 
ern Indians;  and,  finally,  that  they  would  camp  in  such  a  place 
when  gravel  beaches  and  firm,  dry,  level  terraces  offered  ideal 
camping  facilities  within  a  few  rods  in  either  direction. 

There  seems  to  be  an  error  of  observation,  such  as  is  liable 
to  befall  any  one  who  is  not  familiar  with  the  Ohio  at  all  seasons 
and  in  all  its  stages. 


CHAPTER  III 


THEORIES   OF    THE   ORIGIN   AND    MIGRATIONS   OF. 
THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIANS 

Natives  oj  North  America.  Conjectures  as  to  their  Origin.  Ways  in 
luhich  the  New  World  might  have  been  Peopled  from  the  Old. 
Possibly  a  Distinct  Variety.  Apparently  of  Great  Antiquity. 
Mounds  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  Of  Various  Ages.  Widely 
Distributed.  Probable  Initial  Seat  of  American  Aborigines.  Lines 
of  Migration.     Suggestions  as  to  Lineage  of  Mound  Builders. 

IT  scarcely  falls  within  the  province  of  this  volume  to  dis- 
cuss the  original  settlement  of  America ;  yet  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  touch  on  the  subject.  Among  the  numerous 
unsolved  problems,  concerning  which  the  field  archaeologist 
is  expected  to  enlighten  the  public,  there  is  no  other  upon 
which  information  seems  more  desired.  The  questions  ''Where 
did  the  Indians  come  from?"  and  "Who  were  the  Mound 
Builders?"  are  more  frequently  asked  than  any  others.  It  is 
unfortunate  that  we  are  not  yet  in  position  to  make  more  than 
a  guess  —  and  only  a  plausible  guess  —  at  an  answer ;  but  such 
is  the  case.  Pages  could  be  filled  with  a  list  of  authors  who 
have  advocated  theories  based  on  resemblances,  most  of  which 
possess  no  especial  significance.  Too  often  their  produc- 
tions are  incoherent  collections  of  irrelevant  facts,  ingeniously 
woven  together  w^ith  uncertain  traditions,  and  colored  by 
vague  descriptions  borrowed  from  imaginative  travelers.  A 
sample  of  this  style  of  literature  is  furnished  by  one  writer 
who  is 

"Astonished  and  gratified  on  discovering  a  striking  similarity 
between  the  fac-simile  of  the  ancient  Briton's  style  of  writing  axid  that 
found  in  the  mound  at  Grave  Creek.  Although  there  are  but  few  charac- 
ters on  the  flat  stone  found  in  the  mound  at  Grav^  Creek,  yet  several  of 
that  few  exactly  resemble  some  of  those  in  the  Stick  Book  [alphabet]  of 
the  ancient  Britons.  Perhaps  the  former  was  composed  at  a  time  when  the 
emigrant  Britons  in  this  country  had  partially  lost  the  mode  of  writing 
previously  prevalent   in    Britain.     There   are   other   striking    facts    which 

(31) 


32  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

seem  to  prove  that  the  ancient  Britons  first  peopled  this  country.  Ancient 
mounds,  walls,  embankments,  and  parallels,  such  as  are  found  in  this 
country,  exist  throughout  England,  Scotland,  Ireland  and  Wales.  The 
Picts  painted  themselves  in  different  colors,  like  the  aborigines  of  this 
continent.  The  ancient  British  Druids  were  buried  in  mounds.  Among 
the  ornaments  worn  by  the  British  Druid  was  one  like  the  ordinary  plum- 
met-stone of  the  Indians.  In  our  mounds,  grates  or  fireplaces  are 
discovered  containing  charcoal  and  partially  burnt  human  bones.  The 
British  Druids  burnt  human  beings  in  the  performance  of  their  rites."  — 
Levering,  407,  condensed. 

The  author  then  goes  on  to  describe  Welsh,  Scandinavian, 
and  Roman  remains  found  in  various  parts  of  North  and  South 
America,  even  stating  that  "many  fragments  of  Roman  armour 
have  been  found  here." 

One  author  is  satisfied  that  the  inscriptions  accompanying 
the  "Cremation  Scene"  on  the  Davenport  tablets  are  Hittite;  but 
naively  adds 

"  It  may  be  some  time  yet  before  our  knowledge  of  the  Hittite  lan- 
guage will  enable  us  to  arrive  at  perfectly  accurate  translations  of  the 
inscriptions."  —  Campbell. 

Another  has  discovered  that 

"The  Moliazvk  Indians  had  a  tradition  among  them,  respecting  the 
Welsh,  and  of  their  having  been  cut  off  by  the  Indians  at  the  falls  of 
the  Ohio.  Col.  Joseph  Hamilton  Daviess  *  *  '•'  mentions  this  fact 
and  of  the  Welshmen's  bones  being  found  on  Corn  Island."  "Some 
hunter,  many  years  ago,  informed  me  of  a  tombstone  being  found  in  the 
southern  part  of  Indiana,  with  initials  of  a  name,  and  1186  engraved 
on  it."  — Hinde,  374. 

This  tradition  and  tombstone  he  explains  as  follows : — 

"It  is  a  fact  that  the  Welsh  under  Owen  ap  Zuinch,  in  the  twelfth 
century,  found  their  way  to  the  Mississippi,  and  as  far  up  the  Ohio  as 
the  falls  of  that  river  at  Louisville,  where  they  were  cut  off  by  the  Indians; 
others  ascended  the  Missouri,  were  either  captured,  or  settled  with  and 
sunk  into  Indian  habits.  Proof;  In  1799,  six  soldiers'  skeletons  were 
dug  up  near  Jeff ersonville ;  each  skeleton  had  a  breast  plate  of  brass,  cast, 
with  the  Welsh  coat  of  arms,  the  mermaid  and  harp,  with  a  Latin  inscrip- 
tion, in  substance,  'virtuous  deeds  meet  their  own  reward.'""— 
Hinde,  373. 

Conflicting  theories  as  to  northern  and  southern  origin  are 
happily  reconciled  in  the  next  extract,  by  the  ingenious  ex- 
pedient of  setting  up  another  migration  or  two. 


Imaginary  Migrations.  33 

"  While  Baron  Humboldt,  whose  researches  entitle  his  conclusions 
to  great  weight,  regards  the  Toltecs,  and  other  more  ancient  tribes  whose 
names  are  preserved  in  Central  American  tradition,  as  northern  invaders 
of  the  vale  of  Anahuac,  Mr.  Squier,  whose  opportunities  were  perhaps 
equally  good,  believes  they  emanated  from  regions  still  further  south. 
Both  may  be  right ;  and  if  we  conceive  of  a  race  and  civilization  existing 
at  some  more  remote  period  than  Humboldt  takes  into  account,  extending 
their  settlements  through  Texas  and  up  the  Mississippi  and  to  its  tribu- 
taries, and  afterwards  dispossessed  and  driven  out  by  a  great  wave  of 
invasion  from  the  north,  of  which  the  Toltecs,  Olmecs,  and  other  tribes, 
led  the  van,  many  of  the  difficulties  attending  the  inquiry  are  removed. 
We  are  then  remanded  to  Mexico  and  Central  America  *  *  *  as  the 
fountain-head  of  the  Mound-Builders'  civilization."  —  Hosea,  Mounds,  71. 

This  is  quite  simple ;  and  "if  we  conceive"  a  few  more  things 
and  apply  them  where  they  are  needed,  all  the  other  ''difficulties 
attending  the  inquiry"  can  be  very  easily  "removed." 

Dr.  Crookshanks  "once  saw  a  paddle  which  had  been  brought 
from  the  Pacific,  probably  from  the  Feegee  isles,  which  was  al- 
most covered  with  hieroglyphic  characters  [similar]  to  those  on 
the  clubs  of  the  Caribs,  *  *  the  ruins  of  Palenque,  *  ^ 
and  the  Peruvian  jars.  All  these  indicate  to  me  something  of 
Egyptian  character,  and  the  Mexican  idols  and  other  sculpture, 
*  *  as  well  as  others,  "^  ^  partake  of  the  same."  He  then 
shows  how  voyagers  to  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  would  drift 
to  the  Caribbean  Sea.  He  sees  not  only  Egv^ptian  and  Phenician 
art ;  but  finds  in  Chili  "evidence  of  both  Greek  and  Latin  origin." 
After  giving  various  good  reasons  for  the  decay  of  cities,  he 
says, 

"  The  Toltecs,  after  inhabiting  their  country  for  over  four  centuries, 
were  dispersed  about  eight  hundred  years  ago  in  consequence  of  death 
and  pestilence.  Now,  it  would  be  a  most  extravagant  supposition  that 
the  whole  nation  were  cut  off  by  these  causes.  A  goodly  number  of  them 
would  still  have  remained,  and  had  it  not  been  for  their  cowardly  fatalism 
— the  fear  of  like  disaster  in  the  unfortunate  place — they  might  and  would 
have  returned  to  their  ancient  dwellings.  All  nations  in  a  savage  state 
are  fatalists  to  such  a  degree  that  if  they  have  bad  luck  in  any  way  at 
any  town  or  habitation,  they  abandon  it,  and  can  never  be  persuaded  to 
return  and  reinhabit  it.  This  may  afford  a  probable  reason  *  *  *  for 
the  desertion  of  the  forts  and  embankments  in  Ohio  and  the  adjacent 
states.  The  stone  structures  and  sculptures  identify  the  southrons  with 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  mounds  and  earthen  embankments  the  northerners 
with  the  Tartars  and  other  northern  Asiatics.  It  is  not  less  probable 
that  these  abandoned  their  intrenchments  in  consequence  of  conquest, 
death  or  pestilence,  than  that  the  Toltecs  should;  and  possibly  some  ol 
3 


84  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

them  in  succession,  made  several  forts,  and  successively  abandoned  them 
for  like  causes,  and  became  wandering  hordes  until  the  country  became 
covered  with  timber;  then  every  tree  became  an  Indian's  fort.  [He  does 
not  concern  himself]  whether  this  great  and  civilized  people  migrated 
to  Mexico,  or  whether  the  Mexicans  extended  their  conquests  and  colon- 
izations here.  I  believe,  they,  on  this  continent,  formed  two  distinct 
races;  the  one  from  Egypt  and  the  Mediterranean  generally,  partly  by 
way  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  principally  by  that  of  the  straits  of  Gibral- 
tar ;  the  other  from  Asia  by  Behring's  straits.  These  may  have  amal- 
gamated. Some  idols  and  other  remains  give  some  reason  to  suspect 
this;  but  the  [Cincinnati  tablet]  is  not  among  these  indications;  the  figures 
on  it  are  not  hieroglyphics ;  there  is  too  much  of  sameness  to  indicate 
ideas."  —  Crookshanks,   412. 

In  book  I,  of  his  "Aboriginal  Races  of  North  America",  Dr. 
Samuel  G.  Drake  gives  an  excellent  summary  of  literature  up  to 
about  i860  concerning  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  America.  We 
find  that  as  far  back  as  1637  Thomas  Morton  attempted  to  demon- 
strate the  Indians  could  not  be  descended  from  the  Tartars  of 
Asia;  because  "it  is  not  like  that  a  people  well  enough  at  ease, 
v^ill,  of  their  own  accord,  undertake  to  travel  over  a  sea  of  ice." 
But  he  thinks  they  may  have  come  from  the  scattered  Trojans, 
though  he  does  not  explain  why  the  Trojans  would  be  any  more 
''like"  to  come  than  would  the  Tartars.  He  also  finds  great  simil- 
arity between  the  Indian  languages  and  the  Greek  and  Latin — 
which  only  proves  that  he  knew  very  little  about  the  former.  Dr. 
Williamson  in  his  history  of  North  Carolina  (no  date  given)  has 
no  doubt  the  Indians  of  South  America  are  descended  from  the 
Hindoos.  They  could  not  have  come  from  the  north,  he  thinks, 
because  the  South  American  Indians  are  unlike  those  of  the 
north.  Father  Venegas  ( 1758)  after  many  years  residence  among 
California  Indians  fails  to  find  any  knowledge  among  them  as  to 
the  particular  country  from  which  they  may  have  come,  nor  can 
he  discover  any  evidence  connecting  them  v/ith  Asians.  William 
Wood,  in  1633,  says  the  language  of  the  New  England  tribes  is 
peculiar  to  themselves,  having  no  connection  with  the  refined 
tongues;  he  disputes  the  idea,  even  then  prevalent,  that  they  are 
descended  from  the  Jews  merely  because  some  of  their  words  re- 
semble Hebrew.  By  the  same  rule,  lie  says,  they  could  be  proven 
descended  from  various  other  peoples.  Mr.  Josselyn,  in  1638,  finds 
the  Indians  speaking  the  language  of  the  Tartars,  whom  they 
also  resemble  in  complexion,  shape,  liabit,  and  manners.     Rev. 


Imaginary  Migrations.  85 

Thomas  Thorowgood,  in  1652,  "proves"  the  Indians  are  descend- 
ed from  the  Jews.  Roger  WilHams  beHeved  the  same.  Cotton 
Mather,  in  1702,  is  satisfied  that  the  Indians  are  Scythians  whom 
the  Devil  decoyed  to  this  country  to  keep  them  away  from  relig- 
ious teaching.  Adair,  who  lived  among  the  Southern  Indians 
for  forty  years  prior  to  1775,  published  a  voluminous  work  to 
prove  the  Indian  languages  and  customs  are  the  same  as  those 
of  the  Jews ;  and  Dr.  Boudinot,  in  his  "Star  in  the  West"  iden- 
tifies to  his  entire  satisfaction  the  Indians  with  the  Ten  Lost 
Tribes  of  Israel.  This  theory  was  ridiculed  as  far  back  as  1680, 
by  Hubbard  in  his  History  of  New  England;  he  finds  only 
fortuitous  resemblances.  Voltaire  can  see  no  reason  why  the  In- 
dians should  be  derived  from  anywhere;  they  are  native  to  the 
soil  as  are  the  buffalo  or  the  beaver.  Dr.  S.  L.  Mitchell  of  New 
York,  traces  their  descent  from  the  northeastern  nations  of  Asia, 
because  they  are  of  the  same  color.  A  contributor  to  Dr.  Rees's 
Encyclopedia  thinks  "it  would  be  surprising  indeed  that  one-half 
of  our  planet  should  have  remained  without  inhabitants  during 
thousands  of  years,  while  the  other  half  was  peopled."  Dr.  Mc- 
Culloh,  in  his  Aboriginal  History  of  America  (1829),  apparently 
takes  all  sides  of  the  question,  and  ends  where  he  began.  Lord 
Kaimes,  in  Sketches  of  the  History  of  Man  (1774),  not  only 
finds  several  arguments  that  Indians  are  not  descended  from  any 
people  in  northern  Asia  or  Europe,  but  believes  that  America 
has  not  been  peopled  from  any  part  of  the  old  world.  Dr. 
Swinton,  in  the  Ancient  Universal  History,  thinks  Phenicia  and 
Egypt  too  far  away  to  have  furnished  colonists  to  America ;  con- 
sequently it  was  peopled  from  northeastern  Asia.  Dr.  Cabrera, 
of  New  Guatemala,  in  his  history  of  the  Americans  (1822)  is  very 
confident  that  Phenicians  built  the  city  of  Palenque  in  Central 
America.  De  Witt  Clinton  (1818),  thinks  the  ancient  works  in 
this  country  are  similar  to  remains  in  Wales,  attributed  to  the 
Romans ;  also,  that  the  Danes  as  well  as  the  nations  erecting  our 
fortifications  were  of  Scythian  origin — Scythian,  according  to 
Pliny,  meaning  all  nations  in  the  north  of  Asia  and  Europe.  There 
is  a  very  full  account  of  various  stories  concerning  red-haired 
white  Indians  who  speak  Welsh ;  supposed  descendants  of  Madoc 
or  Medoc  who  sailed  west  from  Wales  about  11 70  and  was 
never  afterwards  heard  of.  "  Printed  books,  "  in  Welsh,  were 
carefully  preserved  by  these  Indians ;  unfortunately  for  this  part 


36  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  the  story,  printing  was  not  invented  until  long  after  Madoc's 
time.  Persons  competent  to  decide  have  investigated  this  subject 
thoroughly,  and  found  nothing  whatever  to  substantiate  any 
theory  of  Welsh  colonization. 

A  summary  and  discussion  of  the  various  theories  concerning 
the  manner  in  which  America  received  its  earliest  inhabitants  is 
also  given  in  ''Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Coast"  (H.  H.  Ban- 
croft, I,  chap.  I.)  and  a  condensed  resume  in  "North  Americans 
of  Antiquity"  (Short,  chap.  III.).  A  few  facts  will  be  stated 
which  show  the  possibility  of  foreign  people  reaching  America 
without  intending  it;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  beyond 
a  shadow  of  doubt  the  settlement  of  America  took  place  long 
before  any  vessels  were  made  of  a  size  that  w^ould  encour- 
age voluntary  ocean  voyages;  and  such  wanderers  as  might  be 
cast  ashore  would  soon  be  absorbed  by  the  native  population  and 
leave  little  if  any  trace  of  their  presence. 

The  Gulf  Stream  and  the  trade  winds  carried  Columbus  and  Cabral 
to  Brazil;  and  it  is  only  1,539  miles  from  Cape  Frio  to  Africa.  (Short, 
50G.)  In  forty-one  instances  between  1782  and  1875,  Japanese  junks 
were  cast  upon  our  coast.  There  is  "a  record  of  over  one  hundred 
similar  disasters,"  (H.  H.  Bancroft  V,  51-4.)  At  least  one  Japanese 
wreck,  after  drifting  ten  months,  reached  the  Sandwich  Islands.  — 
Whymper. 

"There  are  two  strange  and  solitary  beings  [on  Fiji  Island]  who 
have  come  from  an  unknown  country  and  speak  an  unknown  language. 
They  were  picked  up  by  a  passing  vessel  many  hundreds  of  miles  from 
any  known  land,  floating  in  the  same  tiny  canoe  in  which  they  had  been 
blown  out  to  sea.  They  had  lived  on  shell-fish  and  a  few  cocoanuts  as 
best  they  could,  and  when  found  were  but  skin  and  bone.  No  one  could 
understand  what  they  said,  and  they  have  never  named  their  country; 
or  if  they  have,  the  name  does  not  correspond  with  that  of  any  island 
on  any  chart."  —  Forbes,  77. 

"At  the  present  day,  natives  of  the  South  Pacific  Islands  undertake, 
without  a  compass,  and  successfully,  long  voyages  which  astonish  even 
a  regular  Jack-tar,  who  is  not  often  astonished  at  anything."  —  Le- 
land,    71-2. 

"  In  the  winter  of  1833  I  saw  two  Japanese  who  had  been  wrecked 
in  a  junk  near  the  entrance  of  the  Straits  of  de  Fuca;  and  if  they  had 
been  dressed  in  the  same  manner,  and  placed  with  the  Chinook  slaves 
whose  heads  are  not  flattened,  I  could  not  have  discovered  the  difference." 
—  Schoolcraft,    History,    I,   217. 

In  1832  a  Japanese  junk,  with  nine  of  the  crew  still  alive,  reached 
the  Sandwich  Islands  after  drifting  eleven  months.  About  the  same 
time  a  similar  boat  landed  near  Cape  Flattery.     Chinese  boats,  also,  have 


Involuntary  Voyages.  87 

l)een  driven  to  the  northwest  coast;  and  articles  have  been  floated  from 
this  coast  to  Kauai.  (Sittig.)  In  1843,  a  Chinese  junk  was  lost  on  the 
coast  of  Oregon.  Three  young  men  were  saved,  taken  to  England, 
educated,  and  sent  back  to  their  country.  Previous  to  that  date  Chinese 
vessels  had  been  wrecked  upon  this  coast.  —  Gray,  40. 

After  showing  the  resemblance  of  certain  forms  of  art  in 
Queen  Charlotte's  Island  to  those  in  Mexico  and  Central  America ; 
the  striking  similarity  of  various  manufactured  objects  in  present 
use  among  the  Haidas  and  the  Maoris ;  and  the  total  difference 
in  language  and  ceremonial  objects  belonging  to  the  Pacific 
Coast  tribes  and  those  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains; — Thomas 
gives  his  endorsement  to  the  theory  that  the  same  races  or 
peoples  who  in  early  prehistoric  times  extended  their  migrations 
over  the  Polynesian  Islands  from  some  unknown  source,  may  have 
worked  their  way  directly  across  the  Pacific  to  the  shores  of 
America. — Thomas,  Origin. 

Wickersham  admits  the  truth  of  all  the  evidence  adduced  by 
Thomas ;  shows  that  there  is  very  much  more  than  the  latter  has 
presented;  then  describes  the  trend  of  the  Pacific  currents,  and 
contends  that  exactly  the  contrary  of  Thomas's  argument  is 
probably  the  truth — that  is,  that  the  Northwest  Pacific  Coast  of 
America  was  peopled  from  Asia,  mainly  from  Japan,  by  means 
of  the  Japan  Current,  and  that,  missing  the  coast,  derelict  barks 
or  craft  were  carried  onward  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and 
thence  to  Polynesia.  He  cites  various  authorities  and  occurrences 
in  proof. — Wickersham. 

Catlin  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  with  all  their  im- 
provements in  boats  and  other  facilities  for  navigation,  and 
with  some  idea  of  the  trade  that  is  to  be  carried  on,  Asians  do 
not  at  this  day  cross  to  Alaska.  (Catlin,  Rambles,  314.)  But  he 
fails  to  give  any  reason  why  they  should  do  so ;  there  is  plenty  of 
room  for  them  in  their  own  country  which  is  in  no  wise  inferior 
to  Alaska ;  and  the  traders  come  to  them  with  all  they  need. 

It  is  asserted,  also,  that  America  may  have  been  settled  by 
Europeans  who  made  their  way  to  Iceland,  thence  to  Greenland, 
and  so  to  Labrador  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  This  was  accom- 
plished in  the  tenth  century  by  Lief  Ericson.  Until  the  time 
•of  the  Norsemen  there  was  no  vessel  capable  of  making  headway 
against  the  Gulf  Stream  and  weathering  north  Atlantic  storms. 
As  to  the  Welsh,  this  is 


88  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"A  tale,  which  the  knowledge  we  have  acquired  of  the  various  Indian 
nations  and  of  their  dialects  has  set  at  rest."  —  Gallatin,   125. 

For  most  writers,  Behring's  Strait  has  from  remotest  times 
been  a  ferry-way  for  Asian  emigrants  to  America. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  approximate  the  period  of  the  world's  history 
in  which  the  migration  must  have  taken  place  [across  Behring's  Strait], 
No  doubt  it  was  in  a  remote  age,  before  the  old  world  peoples  had  devel- 
oped their  present  or  even  historic  peculiarities  and  types  of  civilization." 

—  Short.  511. 

"  The  Scyths  of  Herodotus  have  disappeared  from  the  face  of 
Europe,  and  many  have  supposed  that  they  found  a  refuge  in  America. 
They  certainly  had  many  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Indians  of 
the  plains.  *  *  *  They  were  always  in  condition  to  emigrate,  the  only 
motive  being  the  improvement  of  their  condition.  But  would  they 
voluntarily  move  through  the  vast  and  desolate  region  of  Siberia  ta 
Behring's  Strait,  abandoning  their  flocks  and  herds    *     *     *     and  horses?" 

—  Foster,  334. 

It  is  true  that  Eskimo  and  other  natives  pass  safely,  at  cer- 
tain seasons,  from  one  continent  to  the  other;  but  this  affords  no 
evidence  that  people  unaccustomed  to  boats  would  risk  the  pas- 
sage. It  is  incredible  that  pastoral  or  agricultural  barbarians 
would  suddenly  abandon  those  pursuits  for  a  life  devoted  to^ 
fishing  and  hunting.  Yet,  in  the  case  of  any  people  of  central  or 
southern  Asia,  we  must  either  suppose  this  to  have  happened,  or 
admit  a  very  slow  movement  toward  the  north  and  east,  beginning 
far  back  of  the  Scythians  or  any  other  historic  race. 

"Concerning  the  Aleutian  Islands,  we  know  by  the  evidence  of  lan- 
guage and  archaeology,  that  they  were  first  peopled  from  America  and  not 
from  Asia.  [And  further]  we  know  that  Siberia  was  not  peopled  till 
late  in  Neolithic  times,  and  what  is  more,  that  the  vicinity  of  [Behring] 
Strait  and  the  whole  coast  of  Alaska  were,  till  a  very  modern  geologic 
period,  covered  by  enormous  glaciers  which  have  prevented  any  commu- 
nication between  the  two  continents."  —  Brinton,   Race,  20  and  21. 

The  Serpent  Mound  has  given  rise  to  two  widely  different 
views  concerning  the  migrations  of  its  builders. 

"All  through  Mexico  the  favorite  subject  for  the  Toltee  or  Aztec 
sculptor  was  the  serpent,  generally  the  rattlesnake.  *  *  *  We  have 
already  observed  the  same  disposition  to  sculpture  the  rattlesnake  among 
the  Mound-builders.  In  the  great  serpent  [in]  Adams  County,  Ohio,  we 
find  a  striking  analogy  to  the  tendency  of  Mexican  art.  *  *  *  The 
part  which  the  serpent  symbol  plays  in  the  south  and  east  Asiatic  sculpture 
and  mythology  is  well  known;     *     *     *     j^  occupied  a  place  equally  im- 


Serpent  Worship  —  Lines  of  Travel.  39 

portant  among  Nalnias  and  Hindoos.  The  great  serpent  in  Ohio  may  be 
a  connecting  link  between  the  art  of  both  Mexicans  and  Asiatics."  — 
Short,  418. 

"  The  facts  [that  an  effigy  somewhat  similar  to  the  Serpent  Mound 
had  been  discovered  in  Scotland]  would  indicate  that  serpent  worship 
in  Ohio  had  come  from  Great  Britain  and  had  been  first  introduced  by 
the  mound  builders.  Possibly  the  serpent  worship  in  Mexico  may  have 
been  introduced  from  the  other  side  by  way  of  Polynesia."  — Peet, 
Amer.,  I,  84. 

It  is  a  demonstrated  fact,  however,  that  trees  and  serpents 
were  once  worshipped  or  at  least  held  in  high  veneration,  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  world. 

"  If  it  should  turn  out  that  these  [the  serpent  mounds  and  figures] 
are  really  representations  of  the  great  serpent,  and  that  this  worship 
is  indigenous  in  the  New  World,  we  are  thrown  back  on  the  doctrine 
that  human  nature  is  alike  everywhere,  and  that  man  in  like  circum- 
stances and  wdth  a  like  degree  of  civilization  does  always  the  same 
things,  and  elaborates  the  same  beliefs."  —  Fergusson,  38. 

''Reduced  to  a  similar  situation,  their  wants,  their  desires,  their 
enjoyments,  still  continue  the  same;  and  the  influence  of  food  or  climate, 
which,  in  a  more  improved  state  of  society,  is  suspended  or  subdued,  by 
so  many  moral  causes,  most  powerfully  contributes  to  form  and  to  main- 
tain the  national  character  of  Barbarians."  —  Gibbon. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Scythians  and  other  Asiatics 
may  have  reached  America  along  a  route  which  offered  more 
genial  climatic  conditions  than  that  by  way  of  Behring's  Strait. 
Because  skull-flattening  is  (or  was)  practised  on  the  east  border 
of  Europe,  in  western  America,  and  in  Polynesia,  Short  con- 
cludes that 

"  It  originated  among  the  wild  hordes  of  the  northern  steppes  of 
Asia.  *  *  *  This  fact  is  suggestive  of  a  remote  intercourse  between 
people  separated  by  seas  and  mountains,  if  it  does  not  serve  as  an  argument 
for  the  unity  and  common  origin  of  the  human  family."  —  Short,  183. 

But  we  are  still  confronted,  under  this  supposition,  with  the 
difficulty  of  understanding  how  or  why  "wild  hordes"  would  make 
their  way  from  frigid  plains  through  a  populated  region,  to  trop- 
ical islands.  Neither  do  we  find  any  assistance  in  his  suggestion 
that  the  numerous  remains  of  Polynesia  may  indicate  that  at  one 
time  there  was  a  much  larger  area  of  land  above  the  water  than 
is  now  apparent.  If  such  were  the  case  since  the  buildings  were 
erected,  whose  ruins  are  now  to  be  found,  it  would  seem  that 


40  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

similar  remains  must  exist  below  the  present  sea-level.      These 
have  not  been  reported. 

Mason  shows  how  a  primitive  colony  could  travel  from  the  Indian 
Ocean  to  America,  under  present  geological  and  climatic  conditions,  and 
along  the  present  coastal  lines.  They  would  find  in  their  favor :  An 
abundant  food  supply,  in  the  water  and  on  the  land.  It  is  the  shortest 
possible  route,  being  on  a  great  circle  of  the  earth.  The  present  natives, 
all  along  this  route,  make  sea  journeys  greater  in  length  than  the 
distance  separating  any  one  island  from  the  next  in  the  line  of  migra- 
tion. The  ocean  currents  and  the  winds  favor  the  east-bound  navigator, 
and  equalize  the  temperature.  Such  migrations  may  have  continued  for 
thousands  of  years,  bringing  every  people  of  eastern  and  southern  Asia 
and  of  Polynesia  to  America.  "Every  one  of  the  industrial  and  esthetic 
arts  here  can  be  matched  by  one  from  Asia  or  Oceanica."  "All  in- 
telligent travelers  are  struck  with  the  similarity  existing  between 
our  west  coast  Indians  and  existing  eastern  Asiatics."  The  author 
"desires  to  lay  aside  *  *  *  any  arguments  relying  upon  continents 
that  have  disappeared,  upon  voyages  across  the  profound  sea  without  food 
or  motive,  upon  the  accidental  stranding  of  junks,  or  upon  the  aimless 
wandering  of  lost  tribes.  These  may  all  have  entered  into  the  problem 
of  the  aboriginal  life  of  America."  Finally,  he  believes  that  America  was 
settled  by  people  who  were  being  dispersed  slowly  by  natural  causes, 
and  who  were  led  in  this  direction  because  it  offered  few  obstacles  and 
many  advantages.  —  Mason ;  Migration. 

Indeed,  if  the  subject  be  followed,  we  will  find 

"There  is  not  a  race  of  eastern  Asia  —  Siberian,  Tartar,  Chinese, 
Japanese,  Malay,  with  the  Polynesians  — which  has  not  been  claimed 
as  discoverers,  intending  or  accidental,  of  American  shores,  or  as 
progenitors,  more  or  less  perfect  or  remote,  of  American  peoples;  and 
there  is  no  good  reason  why  any  one  of  them  may  not  have  done  all 
that  is  claimed."  — Winsor,  History,  I,  59. 

The  same  claim  has  been  made  for  the  Norse,  Danes,  Irish, 
Basques,  Welsh,  Jews,  Romans,  Greeks,  Phenicians,  Carthagini- 
ans, Egyptians,  Guanches  of  the  Canary  Islands,  and  even  Ethio- 
pians ;  storm-driven,  on  voyages  of  exploration,  hunting  for  gold, 
or  impelled  by  some  other  motives  to  cross  unknown  seas.  Not 
content  with  existing  lands  to  provide  settlers,  some  writers 
have  evoked  continents  now  buried  beneath  the  sea ;  as  Atlantis, 
and  a  great  continent  in  the  Pacific  represented  by  various  archi- 
pelagoes. Any  sea-faring  race,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  may 
have  reached  America  from  either  direction,  under  three  condi- 
tions—namely, favorable  winds,  of  sufficient  duration;  vessels 
strong  enough  to  resist  any  storm  they  were  destined  to  en- 


A  Distinct  or  Very  Ancient  Race,  41 

counter;  and  a  food  supply  adequate  to  support  the  crews  until 
they  could  reach  land.  It  remains  to  be  proven  whether  there 
was  ever  such  a  concurrence  of  conditions  prior  to  the  tenth 
century. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  not  wanting  assertions  that  the 
American  Indians  are  indigenous  to  the  soil,  as  Voltaire  says, 
''like  the  buffalo  or  the  beaver."  It  is  rather  singular  that  two 
authors,who  have  labored  faithfully  to  connect  them  with  the 
Old- World  races,  should  end  by  saying: — 

"  If  this  continent  was  peopled  by  migration  from  the  Old  World, 
it  must  have  been  at  a  period  far  remote,  and  at  a  time  when  mankind 
was  nnacquainted  with  the  use  of  iron,  *  *  *  jj^g  entire  absence  of 
all  the  domesticated  animals  in  North  America,  when  first  known  to 
the  white  man,  and  of  the  domestic  cereals  of  the  Old  World,  would 
lead  to  the  inference  that  if  this  continent  was  peopled  from  Asia,  it 
must  have  been  at  a  period  far  more  remote  than  is  embraced  in  the 
received  chronology,  and  when  society  was  in  a  purely  hunter  state."  — 
Foster,  333  and  335. 

"  The  most  persistent  investigation  has  failed  to  disclose  any  marked 
resemblance  between  the  architecture,  art,  religion,  and  customs  of  the 
North  Americans  considered  as  a  whole  and  of  any  old  world  people."  — 
Short,  519. 

J.  W.  Powell  says 

"  On  this  subject  [the  study  of  physical  characteristics  of  different 
races]  there  has  been  much  j-esearch ;  *  *  *  but,  the  more  thorough 
the  investigation,  the  firmer  is  the  conclusion  that  the  aboriginal  peoples 
of  America  cannot  be  allied  preferentially  to  any  one  branch  of  the  human 
race  in  the  Old  World."  "  The  American  Indian  did  not  derive  his 
forms  of  government,  his  industrial  and  decorative  arts,  his  languages, 
or  his  mythological  opinions  from  the  Old  World,  but  developed  them 
in  the  New.  Man  thus  seems  to  have  inhabited  the  New  World  through 
all  the  lost  centuries  of  prehistoric  time."  "  There  is  no  evidence  that 
the  tribes  of  the  Occident  have  ever  commingled  with  the  tribes  of  the 
Orient.  *  *  *  'pj^g  occupancy  of  America  by  mankind  was  anterior  to 
the  development  of  arts,  industries,  institutions,  languages  and  opinions; 
the  primordial  occupancy  of  the  continent  antedates  present  geographical 
conditions,  and  points  to  a  remote  time,  which  can  be  discovered  only 
by  geological  and  biological  investigation."  "  Throughout  North  and 
South  America  *  *  *  a  vast  system  of  distinct  languages  was  found, 
usually  so  unlike  each  other  that  they  did  not  furnish  a  method  of 
communication  between  different  peoples.  Of  such  languages  some  hun- 
dreds are  well  known.  *  *  *  "We  are  therefore  forced  to  conclude 
*  *  *  that  the  tribes  inhabited  this  hemisphere  anterior  to  the  de- 
velopment of  articular  or  grammatic  speech."  —  Forum,   682-4,    679-686. 


42  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


In  regard  to  the  statement  contained  in  the  last  paragraph, 

"  Those  learned  in  comparative  philology  say,  that  all  the  multi- 
tudinous languages  and  dialects  spoken  in  America,  from  the  Esquimaux 
to  Patagonia,  constitute  one  family,  have  a  common  root  and  origin; 
and  that  all  the  natives  and  tribes  speaking  these  languages  constitute 
one  race.  While  these  several  hundred  languages  are  the  same  in  or- 
ganism and  structure,  they  differ  so  in  vocabulary  that  many  of  them 
have  not  a  single  word  in  common.  Now,  the  growth  of  a  language  is 
a  slow  process.  *  *  *  How  long  must  it  require  for  a  barbarous 
people  to  develop  and  complete  near  four  hundred  distinct  languages? 
The  period  must,  at  all  events,  be  so  great,  that  one  thousand  years  ago 
is,  in  comparison,  freshly  recent,  almost  of  the  present  day."  —  Force,  6L 

In  spite  of  the  vast  amount  of  study  that  men  have  given  to 
the  matter,  we  do  not  know,  and  at  present  it  appears  doubtful 
whether  we  shall  ever  know,  when,  how,  whence,  or  by  whom, 
America  was  settled,  or  whether  it  was  ever  ''settled"  at  all,  in  the 
ordinary  meaning  of  the  word.  Ethnologically,  the  areas  east 
and  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  essentially  different.  There 
is  manifest,  too,  a  wide  variation  in  character  among  the  races 
inhabiting  the  three  grand  divisions  of  the  continent;  greater 
than  v/ould  probably  be  produced  by  climate  alone.  These  facts 
indicate  more  than  one  line  of  migration,  leading  back  to  differ- 
ent starting  points;  yet,  given  time  enough,  all  these  stages 
of  culture  may  gradually  evolve  in  various  branches  of  one 
tribe  dcvelcpiiig  under  radically  dissimilar  circumstances. 

With  the  present  distribution  of  land  and  water  and  the 
trend  of  ocean  currents,  immigration  would  be  more  feasible, 
to  a  primitive  people,  from  south-eastern  Asia  and  the  adjacent 
islands  than  from  an_y  other  direction.  We  have  no  means  of 
knowing  how  long  existing  conditions  in  these  respects  have  pre- 
vailed. Relatively  slight  elevations  and  depressions  of  various 
portions  of  the  earth's  surface,  like  those  which  have  frequently 
occurred  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  might  produce  such  alteration 
in  land  areas,  winds,  and  ocean  currents  as  to  carry  savages  or 
barbarians  to  places  now  impossible  for  them  to  reach,  or  to 
render  practicable  lines  of  travel  which  they  cannot  now  attempt. 

•"  Man  in  his  wanderings  has  always  been  guided  by  the  course  of 
rivers,  the  trend  of  mountain  chains,  the  direction  of  ocean  currents, 
the  position  of  deserts,  passes  and  swamps.  *  *  *  Perhaps  [at  a  future 
date],  the  post-tertiary  geology  of  our  continent  will  have  been  so  clearly 
defined  that  the  geography  of  its  different  epochs  will  be  known   suffi- 


Origin  of  Mound  Building.  4B 

ciently  to  trace  these  lines  of  migration  at  the  various  epochs  of  man's- 
residence  in  the  western  world  from  his  first  arrival."  —  Essays,  45. 

If  the  existence  of  a  "glacial"  or  "paleolithic"  man  in  this 
country  can  be  proven,  or  if  it  can  be  shown,  as  Powell  contends,, 
that  America  was  inhabited  while  man  was  still  but  little  be- 
yond the  stage  of  a  wild  beast,  his  presence  can  be  accounted  for 
in  only  three  ways:  —  He  gradually  developed  here  from  a 
lower  stage  into  a  human  being;  there  was  a  land  connection 
between  the  eastern  and  western  hemispheres  which  no  longer 
exists;  or  there  were  islands,  or  possibly  continents,  now  de- 
stroyed, so  distributed  that  he  could  be  accidentally  carried  from; 
one  to  another.  At  that  early  period  of  his  existence  he  could 
not  have  prepared  himself  for  travel  by  sea. 

MOUND-BUII.DING   PEOPLES 

Included  in  the  general  search  for  the  starting-point  of 
America's  pristine  population  has  been  the  quest  for  the  original 
home  of  the  Mound  Builder.  Fortuitous  resemblances  in  physi- 
cal characteristics,  manner  of  living,  personal  habits,  and  mental 
traits,  have  furnished  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Red  Man's  de- 
scent from  nearly  every  barbarous  tribe  of  Asia,  and  some  por- 
tions of  Europe ;  similarly,  the  remains  of  the  Mound  Builders  are 
considered  tokens  of  their  identity  or  kinship  with  people  as  fun- 
damentally different  from  each  other  as  the  Egyptians  and  early 
Britons.  The  analogy  is  no  more  convincing  in  one  case  than  in 
the  other. 

Mounds  are  among  the  earliest  and  most  widely  distributed 
memorials  of  the  dead.  Savages  could  pile  up  earth  or  stones  be- 
fore they  could  carve  a  rock  or  hew  a  piece  of  wood.  Barbarians 
would  feel  that  they  were  showing  greater  honor  to  the  memory 
of  a  leader  whose  loss  bore  upon  all  alike,  by  the  erection  of  a  mon- 
ument to  which  every  individual  might  contribute  a  share  of  time 
and  labqr.  Nothing  is  more  enduring;  when  settled  into  com- 
pactness and  covered  wnth  sod,  a  heap  of  earth  will  remain  un- 
changed through  vicissitudes  that  reduce  to  ruins  any  other  pro- 
duct of  human  industry. 

It  is  to  be  expected,  then,  that  such  tumuli  would  be  of 
world-wide  occurrence ;  and  belong  not  only  to  primitive  ages 
when  men  were  debarred  by  limited  resources  from  constructing 


44  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

more  elaborate  tombs,  but  continue  to  be  built  as  tokens  of  general 
esteem  or  affection  long  after  architectural  skill  had  made  mag- 
nificent structures  possible 

A  few  citations  taken  at  random  from  hundreds  that  might 
be  given  show  the  prevalence  of  mound  burial  in  various  parts 
of  the  globe. 

In  the  British  Isles  "the  smaller  tumuli  may  be  seen  on  almost 
every  down;  in  the  Orkneys  alone  it  is  estimated  that  more  than  two 
thousand  still  remain;  and  in  Denmark  they  are  even  more  abundant; 
they  are  found  all  over  Europe,  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Ural  mountains ;  in  Asia  they  are  scattered  over  the  great  steppes,  from 
the  borders  of  Russia  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  plains  of  Siberia 
to  those  of  Hindostan;  the  entire  plain  of  Jelalabad,  says  Masson,  'is 
literally  covered  with  tumuli  and  mounds.'  *  *  *  Nor  are  they  want- 
ing in  Africa.  *  *  *  Indeed,  the  whole  world  is  studded  with  the 
burial  places  of  the  dead.  Many  of  them,  indeed,  are  small,  but  some  are 
very  large."  "Within  a  radius  of  three  miles  [about  Stonehenge,  Eng- 
land,] there  are  about  three  hundred  burial  mounds."  "Tumuli  [were 
erected  over]  Queen  Thyra  and  King  Gorm,  who  died  about  A.  D.  950, 
in  Denmark.  It  appears  that  in  England  the  habit  of  burying  under 
tumuli  was  finally  abandoned  during  the  tenth  century."  —  Lubbock,  110 
to  123. 

The  mound  of  the  King  at  Cogstad,  Norway,  was  about  160  feet 
in  diameter;  its  height  is  not  given.  It  covered  a  Viking  war-vessel  and 
was  erected  in  the  ninth  or  tenth  century.  (Vessels,  80.)  In  A.  D.  363, 
the  Roman  Emperor,  Julian,  jfleeing  before  the  Persians,  died  at 
Samarah  on  the  Tigris.  His  body  was  burned  and  a  "huge  tumulus"  was 
erected  as  a  monument.  —  Myers,   143  and  164. 

"Far  more  interesting  than  any  of  the  [other]  tumuli  explored  by 
me  in  the  Troad,  is  the  mound  attributed  by  the  tradition  of  all  antiquity 
to  the  hero  Protesilaus.  *  *  *  This  sepulchre  *  *  *  jg  ^ot  less 
than  126  meters  in  diameter.  It  is  now  only  10  meters  high,  but  as  it  is 
under  cultivation,  and  has  probably  been  tilled  for  thousands  of  years, 
it  must  have  been  originally  much  higher."  —  Schliemann. 

Near  Aleppo  is  "an  immense  artificial  mound,  nearly  half  a  mile  ih 
circumference,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  surrounded 
in  part  by  a  cyclopean  wall,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  in  height,  constructed 
of  huge  basaltic  boulders.  *  *  *  Qne  is  astonished  at  the  vast  num- 
ber of  these  mounds  occurring  throughout  Northern  Syria  and.  Mesopo- 
tamia. Upon  the  plains  of  the  latter  we  have  counted  twenty  within 
range  of  the  vision.  *  *  *  Advantage  seems  to  have  been  taken,  in 
some  cases,  of  a  natural  eminence;  but  generally  the  entire  enormous 
pile  is  unmistakably  of  artificial  construction.  *  *  *  That  they  date 
back  to  the  very  earliest  time  there  is  no  doubt."  — Myers,  71. 

"  The  largest  mound  near  Nineveh  covered  one  hundred  acres.  Its 
surface  is  somewhat  irregular,  the  mound  varying  in  height  from  seventy 


Mounds  in  the  Old  World.  45 

to  ninety  feet.  Not  more  than  twenty  to  thirty  feet  is  composed  of  the 
material  of  the  destroyed  buildings ;  the  remaining  elevation  marking  the 
height  of  the  artificial  platform  upon  which  the  palaces  stood."  —  Myers  > 
114-5,   condensed. 

"  Semiramis,  the  widow  of  Ninus,  raised  over  him  a  great  mound  of 
earth.  Two  Trojan  heroes  were  buried  under  earthen  barrows.  Hec- 
tor's barrow  was  of  earth  and  stone.  Achilles  erected  a  tumulus  upwards 
of  an  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  over  Patroclus.  The  mound  over  the 
Father  of  Croesus,  King  of  Lydia,  was  of  stone  and  earth  and  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  league  [?]  in  circumference.  Alexander  the  Great  heaped 
a  tumulus  over  Hephsestion  at  a  cost  of  much  more  than  a  million  dollars. 
Deucennus,  King  of  Latium,  was  buried  under  an  earthen  mound.  Mound 
burial  was  practiced  in  ancient  times  by  the  Scythians,  Greeks,  Etruscans, 
Germans  and  many  other  nations.  —  Lubbock,   116,   condensed. 

"About  ten  miles  from  the  city  of  Kalgan  [China]  there  is  a  cluster 
of  over  forty  mounds,  one  of  them  being  thirty  feet  high,  and  four  hun- 
dred and  twenty  feet  in  circumference  at  the  base,  and  an  oval  rhound 
forty-eight  feet  in  length  on  the  summit."  —  Can.  Savage,  32. 

The  Chimus  of  the  Peruvian  coast,  a  dififerent  people  from 
those  of  the  Incas,  had  sepulchral  mounds,  and  "great  mounds 
or  artificial  hills,"  whose  purpose  is  not  stated.  ( Winsor :  History 
I,  275.)  The  burial  mound  of  Oberea^  in  Otaheite,  was  267  feet 
long,  87  feet  wide,  and  44  feet  in  height.  It  was  a  pyramid  made 
of  round  pebbles,  faced  with  squared  coral  stone. — Lubbock,  483. 


Not  all  such  structures  are  sepulchral  in  character ;  many  owe 
their  origin  to  a  religious  instinct. 

In  Wiltshire,  England,  are  prehistoric  remains  of  great  ex- 
tent supposed  to  be  the  work  of  the  Druids.     The  so-called 

"  Temple  of  Abury  consisted  originally  of  a  grand  circumvallation  of 
earth  1,400  feet  in  diameter,  enclosing  an  area  of  upwards  of  twenty-two 
acres.  C)  It  has  an  inner  ditch,  and  the  height  of  the  embankment, 
measuring  from  the  bottom  of  the  ditch,  is  seventeen  feet.  It  is  quite 
regular,  though  not  an  exact  circle  in  form,  and  has  four  entrances  placed 
at  unequal  distances  apart,  though  nearly  at  right  angles  to  each  other. 
Within  this  grand  circle  were  originally  two  double  or  concentric  circles, 
composed  of  massive  upright  stones ;  a  row  of  large  stones,  one  hundred 
in  number,  was  placed  upon  the  inner  brow  of  the,  ditch.  Extending 
upon  either  hand  from  this  grand  central  structure,  were  parallel  lines 
of  huge  upright  stones,  constituting  upon  each  side,  avenues  upwards 
of  a  mile  in  length.  These  formed  the  body  of  the  serpent.  Each 
avenue  consisted  of  two  hundred  stones.       The  head  of  the  serpent  was 

O — A  circle  of  this  diameter  would  enclose  nearly  35  acres. 


46  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

represented  by  an  oval  structure,  consisting  of  two  concentric  lines  of 
upright  stones;  the  outer  line  containing  forty,  the  inner  eighteen  stones. 
This  head  rests  on  an  eminenre  *  *  *  from  which  is  commanded 
a  view  of  the  entire  structure,  winding  back  for  more  than  two  miles 
to  the  point  of  the  tail.  *  *  *  About  midway,  in  a  right  line  between 
the  extremities  of  the  avenues,  is  placed  a  huge  mound  of  earth,  known 
as  Silsbury  Hill,  [which]  is  supposed  by  some,  Dr.  Stukely  among  the 
number,  to  be  a  monumental  structure  erected  over  the  bones  of  a  King 
or  Arch-Druid."  —  Squier,  234. 

"  The  circumference  of  the  [above]  hill,  as  near  the  base  as  possible, 
measured  two  thousand  and  twenty-seven  feet,  the  diameter  at  top  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet,  the  sloping  height  three  hundred  and  sixteen 
feet,  and  the  perpendicular  height  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet,"  It 
contains  over  13,500,000  cubic  feet.  —  Hoare,   82. 

"  But  the  most  wonderful  structure  of  the  kind  yet  discovered  is  the 
gigantic  temple  ot  Karnac  in  Brittany.  The  serpentine  character  of  this 
great  work  is  now  well  established.  It  consists  of  seven  parallel  rows  of 
huge  upright  stones,  which,  following  the  sinuous  course  of  the  structure, 
can  yet  be  traced  for  upwards  of  eleven  miles,  and  it  is  believed  it  for- 
merly extended  thirteen  miles  in  length.  The  stones  are  placed  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  feet  apart  laterally,  and  from  thirty  to  thirty-three  feet 
apart  longitudinally.  Some  of  these  are  of  vast  size  measuring  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  in  length  above  the  ground,  by  twelve  feet 
in  breadth  and  six  in  thickness ;  and  are  estimated  to  weigh  from  one 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  tons  each.  The  number  of  stones 
originally  comprised  in  the  work  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Deane,  who  made 
a  careful  survey  of  the  ruins,  at  upwards  of  ten  thousand.  The  line  of 
this  vast  parallelithon  is  designedly  crooked  or  serpentine,  although  main- 
taining a  general  direction  from  east  to  west;  and  the  height  of  the 
stones  is  so  graduated  as  to  convey  (in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Deane)  the 
idea  of  undulation,  thereby  rendering  the  resemblance  to  a  vast  serpent 
more  complete  and  obvious.  In  connection  with  this  structure  is  an  emi- 
nence, partly  natural  and  in  part  artificial  (corresponding  to  Silbury 
Hill  at  Abury)  called  Mount  St.  Michael,  from  which  a  general  view  of 
the  great  serpentine  temple  is  commanded."  (Squier,  Serpent,  238.) 
This  hill  "is  no  less  than  380  feet  in  length,  and  190  feet  broad,  with 
an  average  height  of  33  feet,"  —  Lubbock ,  163. 

Although  these  "temples"  find  no  counterpart  in  North 
America,  the  description  of  them,  as  of  the  mounds  referred  to,  is 
inserted  partly  to  furnish  a  basis  of  comparison  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  labor  performed  in  this  country  and  in  other  parts  of 
the  world;  partly  to  show  the  futility  of  attempting  to  establish 
any  theory  of  desceni  or  relationship  upon  a  practice  so  nearly 
universal. 


Primitive  Home  of  the  American  Indian.  47 

Omitting  from  consideration  all  reference  to  our  aborigines 
other  than  the  Mound  Builders  and  their  possible  ancestors,  there 
is  as  little  certainty  and  as  much  guesswork  in  regard  to  their 
movements  in  America  as  there  is  in  theories  regarding  their  in- 
definite ancestors.  The  original  home  of  the  American  native  is 
generally  conceded  to  liave  been  on  the  far  Northwest  coast. 
Morgan  has  offered  cogent  reasons  for  such  belief.     He  says : — 

"  Barbarians  ignorant  of  agriculture  and  depending  upon  fish  and 
game  for  subsistence,  spread  over  large  areas  with  great  rapidity.  The 
American  aborigines  undoubtedly  commenced  their  career  as  fishermen 
and  hunters,  but  chiefly  cs  fishermen.  The  .lunt  is  a  precarious  source  of 
"human  subsistence.  Without  the  horse  to  follow  the  larger  animals  of 
the  chase  upon  the  plains,  it  was  entirely  impossible  for  nations  of  men 
to  maintain  themselves  from  this  source  exclusively  or  even  principally. 
Nations  would  rapidly  perish  if  dependent  upon  so  uncertain  a  source  of 
maintenance.  Fish  was  the  basis  of  subsistence  of  the  Indian  tribes,  to 
which  their  increase  in  numbers  and  diffusion  over  North  America  is  to 
be  ascribed.  It  was  by  the  abundance  of  this  article  of  food  that  certain 
centers  of  population  w^ere  created,  which  first  supplied,  and  afterward 
replenished,  the  continent  with  inhabitants. 

"  The  country  within  a  radius  of  five  hundred  miles  from  the  head 
of  Puget  sound,  was  singularly  well  supplied  at  the  time  of  its  discovery 
with  the  requisites  for  the  subsistence  of  Indian  tribes.  A  mild  and  genial 
climate  was  added  to  its  other  attractions.  In  the  amount  and  variety 
of  the  means  of  subsistence  spontaneously  furnished,  it  had  no  parallel 
in  any  part  of  the  earth. 

"  The  facts  are  sufficient  to  raise  a  presumption  that  the  valley  of 
the  Columbia  was  the  region  from  which  both  North  and  South  America 
^yere  peopled  in  the  first  instance,  and  afterward  resupplied  with  inhab- 
itants. 

"The  Algonkin,  the  Dakotan,  the  Pawnee,  and  the  Shoshonee — 
seem  to  proceed  from  the  valley  of  the  Columbia  as  their  original  source. 
In  point  of  time  the  Algonkins  apparently  held  the  advance  in  the  eastern 
movement,  and  were  thus  able  to  follow  the  isothermal  line,  by  way  of 
the  Saskatchewan,  to  the  great  lake  region,  and  thence  to  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Lawrence;  while  the  Dakotas,  striving  to  move  in  the  same  gen- 
eral direction,  took  a  more  southern  route,  by  way  of  the  Platte;  and 
the  Pawnees  and  Shoshonees,  moving  still  later,  followed  a  route  still 
farther  south. 

"  It  is  reasonably  certain,  first,  that  the  distribution  of  the  aborigines 
over  North  America  began  on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent ; Second, 
that  the  several  stock  languages  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  north 
of  New  Mexico  had  become  distinct  before  these  stocks  migrated  east- 
ward; third,  that  the  nations  of  Mexico  and  Central  America  were 
emigrants  from  the  north;  and  last,  that  the  initial  point  of  all  these 
migrations  was  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia. 


48  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior  were  the 
central  seats  of  the  Algonkin  stock,  from  its  earliest  appearance  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  continent,  and  that  emigrants  went  forth  from  this, 
secondary  center  of  population  to  the  southward  and  eastward. 

"Two  important  facts  are  made  apparent;  first,  that  the  Algonkin 
stock  still  inhabit  the  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  over  against  the 
valley  of  the  Columbia,  thus  pointing  to  that  valley  as  the  initial  point 
from  which  they  emigrated  to  the  great  lake  region,  and  thence  to  the 
Atlantic  coasts;  and  secondly,  that  they  were  climatically  a  northern 
people.  —  Morgan,    Migrations,    159-253,    condensed. 

After  discussing  at  some  length  the  movements  of  the  various 
tribes,  their  connection  with  one  another,  their  amalgamations 
and  separations,  he  states  his  belief  that 

"Among  those  nations  who  are  without  recognized  descendants 
are  the  mound-builders  who  lived  east  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  evident 
that  they  were  agricultural  and  village  Indians,  from  their  artificial 
embankments,  their  implements  and  utensils,  and  from  their  selection 
of  the  areas  most  poorly  provided  with  fish  and  game.  From  the 
absence  of  all  traditionary  knowledge  of  their  existence,  amongst  the 
nations  found  in  possession  of  their  territories,  it  is  also  to  be  inferred 
that  the  period  of  their  occupation  was  ancient.  Their  disappearance 
was  probably  gradual,  and  completed  before  the  advent  of  the  present 
stocks,  or  simultaneously  with  their  arrival.  The  small  number  of  sites 
of  ancient  villages,  and  the  scanty  population  assignable  to  Indian  villages 
even  of  the  largest  class,  particularly  in  cold  climates,  are  good  reasons 
for  supposing  they  were  never  very  numerous.  It  is  a  reasonable  con- 
jecture, as  elsewhere  stated,  that  they  were  village  Indians  from  New 
Mexico.  In  fact,  there  is  no  other  region  from  which  they  could  have 
been  derived;  unless  it  be  assumed  that,  originally  roving  Indians,  they 
had  become  after  their  establishment  east  of  the  Mississippi,  Village 
Indians  of  the  highest  type — of  which  there  is  not  the  slightest  probability. 
It  seetns  more  likely  that  their  retirement  from  the  country  was  volun- 
tary, than  that  they  were  expelled  by  an  influx  of  roving  nations.  If 
their  overthrow  had  been  the  result  of  a  protracted  warfare,  all  remem- 
brance of  so  remarkable  an  event  would  scarcely  have  been  lost  among  the 
natives  by  whom  they  were  displaced.  *  *  *  it  is,  therefore,  not 
improbable  that  the  attempt  to  transfer  the  type  of  village  life  of  New 
Mexico  to  the  Ohio  valley  proved  a  failure;  and  that  after  great  efforts, 
continued  for  more  centuries  than  one,  it  was  finally  abandoned,  and 
they  gradually  withdrew,  first  into  the  gulf  states,  and  lastly  from  the 
country*  altogether. 

"But  there  is  not  a  fact  to  show  that  the  village  Indians  of  Central 
America  or  Mexico  ever  spread  northward,  or  competed  with  the  North- 
ern Indians  for  the  possession  of  any  part  of  the  continent  north  of  the 
immediate  valley  of  Mexico;  whilst  several  reasons  may  be  assigned 
against    the    supposition    of    a    movement    in    that    direction."     (Morgan, 


Theories  as  to  Identity  of  the  Mound  Builders.  49 

Migrations,  243-5.)  ''Every  presumption  is  in  favor  of  their  derivation 
from  New  Mexico  as  their  immediate  anterior  home,  where  they  were 
accustomed  to  snow  and  to  a  moderate  degree  of  cold."  —  Morgan,  202. 

Other  investigators  have  come  to  a  somewhat  different  con- 
clusion. 

"  Bishop  Madison,  of  Virginia,  having  with  much  labor  investigated 
the  subject,  declares  his  conviction  that  these  Astecks  are  one  and  the 
same  people  with  those  who  once  inhabited  the  valley  of  Ohio.  The  prob- 
abilities are  certainly  in  favor  of  this  opinion."  —  Harrison,   224. 

"  In  undertaking  to  trace  the  migrations  of  the  Mound  Builder,  I 
would  direct  attention  to  the  warm  climate  of  Central  America,  rather 
than  to  the  hyperborean  regions  of  Siberia  and  Behring's  Strait  as  mark- 
ing the  line  of  his  departure.  The  primitive  lines  of  migration,  so  far 
as  they  relate  to  North  America,  were  probably  from  the  south  to  the 
north."  — Foster,  339. 

Gillman  is  not  content  with  an  origin  so  near  home,  as  he 
speaks  of 

"Mound  Builders  *  *  *  the  mysterious  people  *  *  *  ^ 
race  whose  craniological  development  and  evidently  advanced  civilization 
apparently  separate  it  from  the  North  American  Indian  and  ally  it  to  the 
ancient  Brazilian  type."  —  Gillman,    M.   B.,   304. 

Payn  advocates  the  Carib  origin  of  the  mounds.  He  bases 
his  argument  on  the  well-known  fact  that  the  Caribs  made  canoe 
voyages  to  Yucatan  and  to  Florida.  Consequently  he  thinks 
there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  sailed  up  the  Missis- 
sippi and  its  tributaries,  and  spread  over  all  the  interior  region. 
But  maritime  nations  are  not  given  to  living  away  from  water; 
besides  w^hich,  the  connection  between  canoe  voyages  and  mounds 
is  not  apparent. 

Starr  says  of  an  engraved  shell  very  similar  to  those  figured 
by  Holmes,  which  w^as  found  "near  Morelia,  in  the  state  of  Mich- 
oacan,  Mexico:" — 

"Form,  function,  character  of  this  IMichoacan  specimen  are  plainly 
the  same  as  those  from  Tennessee,  Georgia  and  Missouri.  It  can  no 
longer  be  said  that  the  type  is  essentially  northern  nor  that  it  belongs 
exclusively  to  the  Mound  Builders  of  the  United  States.  *  *  *  in  fact 
there  are  greater  differences  between  the  Tennessee  specimens  them- 
selves, or  between  the  Missouri  specimens  alone,  than  there  are  between 

the   United    States    specimens   as   a   class,    and    this    Mexican    eorset " 

Starr,   173. 

''  One  of  the  specimens  from  the  Hopewell  mounds  was  a  remarkably 
fine  piece  of  incised  work  on  the  polished  surface  of  a  piece  of  humaa 
4 


50  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

femur.     The   carving   comprises   human  and   animal   faces,    ovals,   circles 
and  other  symbolic  designs,  and  resolves  itself  into  several  distinct  masks 
and  head-dresses  together  with  the  serpent  and  sun  symbols.     The  designs 
on  this  carving  are  repeated  in  the  forms  of  objects  found  in  the  same 
mound.     The  most  striking  resemblance  was  found  in  one  of  the  masks 
which,  in  the  carving,  is  surmounted  with  a  head-dress  in  the  form  of  a 
deer's  antlers,  while  in  the  mound  was  found  a  skeleton  having  over  the 
skull  a  head-dress  of  copper  and  wood  made  in  this  same  form  with  the 
branching  antlers.     One  carving  on  the  arm  bone  of  a   man   represents 
several  animal  heads  interwoven  in  a  curious  manner,  and  over  each  head 
are   the   symbolic   designs,   ovals   and   circles,   common   to   nearly   all   the 
carvings.     These   lines   are  arranged   in   such   a   fashion  that  portions   of 
each  head  form  part  of  another  above  and  below,  and  the  reverse  of  the 
carving  shows  still  different  heads.       Other  specimens  represent  artistic 
conventionalized  forms  of  birds  and  animals.     Professor  Putnam  said  the 
Cincinnati   Tablet   is   undoubtedly   genuine,    since   'several   of  the   strange 
figures  carved  on  the  stone  are  of  the  conventionalized  serpent  form  com- 
mon in  the  mounds  of  Ohio  and  also  agreeing  essentially  with  the  serpent 
head  symbol  on  the  old  stone  sculptures  of  Central  America,  which  re- 
semblances were  not  before  known.'     This  stone  was  also  found  to  have 
lines   identical   with   those  on   a  piece  of  copper   found  in  the   Hopewell 
group.     Professor  Putnam  also  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  elabor- 
ate and   intricate   designs  and   delicate   workmanship   of   the  carvings   he 
had  illustrated  necessitated  a  high  degree  of  skill,  ingenuity  and  patience 
for  their  conception  and  execution,  combined  with  a  certain  religious  cult 
expressed  by  the  symbols  in  the  carvings,  and  he  claimed  that  no  such 
wrork  had  ever  been  done  by  the  dolichocephalic  tribes  of  the  northern 
and  eastern  portions  of  the  United  States,  nor  had  any  such  specimens 
ever  been  found  in  the  mounds  of  later  date.     His  convictions,  after  more 
than  twenty-five  years  of  exploration  and  study,  are  that  the  builders  of 
the  old  mounds  and  earthworks   of   the   Ohio   Valley,   'were  probably   a 
branch  of  the  great  southwestern  people  represented  by  ancient  Mexicans, 
the  builders  of  the  old  cities  of  Yucatan  and  Central  America,   and  some 
of  the  Pueblo  tribes'   of  the  south-west."  —  A.   A.   A.    S.,    in   Bui.   Am. 
'Geo.   Soc. ,   condensed. 

"  The  marked  development  of  conventionalism  and  symbolism  in  the 
art  of  the  people  who  built  the  old  earthworks  in  the  Ohio  Valley  and 
southward,  indicates  their  connection  with  certain  peoples  of  the  south- 
west and  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  It  also  furnishes  one  more 
point  of  evidence  that  the.  Ohio  earthwork  builders  were  more  closely 
allied  with  the  early  stock,  of  which  the  ancient  Mexicans  were  a  branch, 
than  with  the  tribes  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  continent.  The  art  of  the 
■eastern  tribes,— with  the  exception  here  and  there  of  slight  resemblances 
which  can  easily  be  accounted  for  by  survival  from  ancient  contact, — 
is  of  an  entirely  different  character  with  different  motives  and  different 
^symbols;  whereas  this  old  art  of  Ohio  is  closely  related  to  that  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America,  and  many  of  the  symbols  are  identical."  —  Sym- 
bolism, 302. 


Theories  as  to  Identity  of  the  Mound  Builders.  61 

Some  writers  have  turned  the  tide  of  emigration  in  the  other 
direction ;  they  argue  that  the  peoples  of  the  southwest  are  derived 
from  those  of  the  Ohio  valley.     For  example : — 

"  In  the  light  of  modern  discovery  and  scientific  investigation  we  are 
able  to  follow  the  Mound  Builders.  We  first  found  them  in  Ohio  engaged 
in  tilling  the  soil  and  developing  a  civilization  peculiar  to  themselves. 
Driven  from  their  homes  they  sought  an  asylum  in  the  South,  and  from 
there  they  wandered  into  Mexico,  where  we  begin  to  learn  something 
more  definite  concerning  them."  —  McLean,    148. 

"  So  we  can  track  the  Mound  Builders  by  their  structures  from  the 
shores  of  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  milder  region  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America.  The  truncated  pyramid  is  among  the  strongest  links  in  the 
chain  which  connects  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
with  those  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  In  the  rude  earthworks  we 
see  the  germ  of  the  idea  which  was  subsequently  wrought  out  in  pro- 
portions of  beauty  and  harmony,  giving  origin  to  a  unique  style  of  archi- 
tecture. The  flat-topped  mounds  are  traced,  with  increasing  size  and  di- 
versity of  form,  from  Aztalan,  Wisconsin  to  the  Teocallis  of  Central 
America."  — Foster,  98,  188  and  186. 

In  order  to  show  how  some  writers  are  simply  guessing,  com- 
pare the  preceding  statement  with  the  following  by  the  same 
author : — 

"  The  Aztecs  moved  into  the  valley  of  Anahuac  only  about  three 
hundred  years  before  the  Spanish  Conquest,  and  had  failed  to  consolidate 
the  Mexican  Empire.  It  is  quite  probable  that  these  astronomical  prob- 
lems, which  indicate  a  high  range  of  intellect,  were  not  wrought  out  by 
their  own  ingenuity,  but  were  derived  from  the  subjugated  race.  As  to 
the  conquered  race,  de  Bourborg  maintains  that  they  were  Toltecs  or 
Nahuas  —  a  people  identical  with  the  ]\Iound  Builders  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  Valleys.  —  Foster,  340,  condensed. 

The  pioneers,  Squier  and  Davis,  while  believing  in  a  rela- 
tionship between  the  races,  express  no  opinion  as  to  which  was 
the  earlier.  Their  final  deduction,  on  this  phase  of  the  problem, 
is  very  conservative. 

"  We  may  venture  to  suggest  that  the  facts  thus  far  collected  point 
to  a  connection  more  or  less  intimate  between  the  race  of  the  mounds  and 
the  semi-civilized  nations  which  formerly  had  their  seats  among  the 
sierras  of  Mexico,  upon  the  plains  of  Central  America  and  Peru,  and  who 
erected  the  imposing  structures  which  from  their  number,  vastness,  and 
mysterious  significance  invest  the  central  portions  of  the  continent  with  an 
[absorbing]  interest."  —  S.  &  D.,  301. 

Short  has  no  difficulty  in  getting  at  the  kernel  of  the  whole 
question.     He  covers  a  very  wide  field  in  a  very  few  sentences, 


52  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  displays  remarkable  analytic  powers  in  determining  lines  and 
dates  of  migrations. 

"  It  is  not  improbable  that  while  few  in  numbers  the  Nahuas  ar- 
rived on  our  north-western  coast,  where  they  found  a  home  until  they 
had  become  a  tribe  of  considerable  proportions.  Crossing  the  watershed 
between  the  sources  of  the  Columbia  and  Missouri  Rivers,  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  tribe  probably  found  its  way  to  the  Mississippi  Valleys,  where 
it  laid  the  foundations  of  a  wide-spread  empire,  and  developed  a  civil- 
ization which  reached  a  respectable  degree  of  advancement.  The  remain- 
der of  the  Nahuas,  we  think,  migrated  southward  into  Utah."  [So  he 
continues,  scattering  various  tribes  of  Nahuas  all  over  the  south  and  west, 
and  finally  landing  them  all  in  Mexico.] 

"  The  52  years  in  the  Aztec  cycle,  multiplied  by  the  24  marks  on  the 
calender  stone,  gives  us  1248  years.  There  is  a  sign  accompanied  by 
the  number  13,  which  corresponds  to  the  year  1479,  the  date  at  which  the 
calendar  stone  was  finished.  If  we  subtract  1248  years  from  the  known 
date  1479  A.  D.,  we  have  the  year  231  A.  D. ;  *  *  *  we  believe  this  to 
be  the  date  of  the  migration  from  Hue  hue  Tlalapan,  the  country  of  the 
Mound  Builders  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  we  further  think  we  are 
sustained  in  this  view  both  by  the  early  writers  and  by  the  condition  of 
the  mounds  and  shellheaps  of  the  United  States."— Short,  517  and  458. 

The  principal  objection  to  all  these  paradoxical  surmises  con- 
cerning wandering  Nahuas,  Aztecs,  Mound  Builders,  etc.,  is,  that 
no  satisfactory  evidence  is  forthcoming  in  regard  to  them.  Some 
very  high  authorities  dismiss  the  subject  as  being,  at  present,  en- 
tirely beyond  any  means  of  certainty  or  knowledge. 

So  far  as  the  arguments  of  advocates  of  Toltec  migration  from  the 
north  and  from  the  south  are  concerned,  "  We  can  turn  from  one  to  the 
other  of  these  theorists  and  agree  with  both,  as  they  cite  their  evidences. 
It  is  one  thing  to  lose  one's  way  in  this  labyrinth  of  belief,  and  another 
to  lose  one's  head."  —  Winsor :    History,   I,    136. 

"  The  traditions  of  the  migrations  of  the  Chichimecs,  Colhuas,  and 
Nahuas  are  no  better  than  the  Greek  traditions  about  Pelasgians,  Co- 
hans and  lonians,  and  it  would  be  a  mere  waste  of  time  to  construct  out 
of  such  elements  a  systematic  history."  —  Mtiller. 

There  is  another  fact  opposed  to  these  theories  of  kinship. 
Both  peoples  were  apparently,  inveterate  smokers;  yet  while 
thousands  of  pipes  have  been  exhumed  from  mounds,  the  name 
and  the  use  of  the  calumet  was  unknown  to  the  Aztecs.  — 
Biart,  103. 

It  will  be  observed  in  the  above  citations  that  no  tangible  ob- 
jects of  any  character  are  offered  in  support  of  their  various 
assertions,  except  the  shell  described  by  Starr  and  the  Hopewell 


Objections  to  Theories  of  Migration.  63 

specimens  mentioned  by  Putnam.  These  may  doubtless  be  ex- 
plained in  the  same  manner  as  other  articles  from  mounds,  figured 
on  subsequent  pages. 

In  all  the  territory  between  New  Mexico  and  the  middle  Ohio 
valley,  there  are  no  adobe  structures  like  those  of  the  former  lo- 
cality, or  great  enclosures  such  as  are  typical  of  the  latter.  The 
so-called  adobes  and  bricks  reported  in  the  mounds  and  village- 
sites  of  the  southern  states  are  only  masses  of  burned  earth  (see 
page  461.)  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  either  custom,  after  being 
in  vogue  for  several,  perhaps  many,  generations,  would  be  at  once 
and  completely  abandoned.  Then,  no  attempt  is  made  to  explain 
how  migrating  parties  may  have  reached  their  destination.  Two 
routes  were  open  to  either  the  Pueblo  Indians  or  the  natives  of 
Mexico.  The  first  lay  over  barren,  burning  deserts,  beneath  a 
scorching  sun,  where  for  many  days  in  succession  neither  water 
nor  food  is  to  be  obtained.  These  must  be  carried  in  addition 
to  other  necessary  articles.  The  second  route  led  to  the  Gulf 
coast,  and  along  that  to  any  point  where  they  chose  to  diverge 
from  it.  Either  would  at  last  bring  them  to  the  fertile  lands  of 
the  lower  Mississippi  valley,  where  they  would  find  everything 
needed  by  a  savage  or  a  barbarian  for  rendering  life  pleasant  or 
even  luxurious.  It  may  be  that  population  so  increased  under 
these  favorable  surroundings,  as  to  make  it  necessary  for  colonies 
to  branch  off  and  seek  a  home  elsewhere ;  but  it  is  improbable  they 
would  at  once  have  begun  a  journey  of  hundreds  of  miles  toward 
the  north,  or  that,  if  they  had  advanced  by  slow  degrees  as  is  most 
likely,  they  would  have  erected  in  the  country  over  which  they 
traveled  structures  which,  so  far  as  we  can  tell  from  the  meager 
ruins,  were  markedly  different  from  those  in  both  the  region 
which  they  left  and  that  where  they  settled.  The  same  difficulties 
attend  the  reverse  of  the  proposition ;  namely,  that  the  peoples 
of  the  southwest  are  descended  from  the  Mound  Builders. 

A  further  discussion  of  this  question  will  form  a  part  of  the 
matter  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE   MOUND   BUILDERS 

Ohio  Mound  Builders.  Early  Writers.  Little  Known  Until  the  Report 
of  Squier  and  Davis.  Great  Increase  in  Number  of  Authors  Since 
Their  Day.  Conflicting  Opinions  Regarding  this  People.  Theories 
as  to  Their  Affiliation  with  Historic  Tribes.  No  Definite  Knowl- 
edge Concerning  Their  Origin  or  End. 

FOR  over  half  a  century  after  the  settlement  of  Ohio, 
there  was  more  or  less  speculation  about  Mound 
Builders'  work,  most  of  it  based  on  casual  obser- 
vations and  incorrect  reports.  It  was  generally  known 
the  primeval  forests  concealed  earthen  remains  of  various 
forms,  and  in  some  cases  of  considerable  extent ;  but  definite 
information  concerning  them  was  lacking,  and  while  much 
diversity  of  opinion  existed  as  to  their  origin,  no  theories  ad- 
vanced in  regard  to  their  builders  or  the  purpose  of  their  con- 
struction met  either  with  zealous  advocacy  except,  in  some  cases, 
from  the  author;  or  with  forcible  opposition.  Occasionally 
an  article  would  appear  in  a  periodical  or  in  a  volume  devoted 
mainly  to  some  other  subject,  describing  a  particular  group,  or 
the  remains  within  a  limited  area.  Some  of  these  articles  were 
accompanied  by  a  few  crude  illustrations.  They  were  generally 
based  upon  cursory  examinations,  and  the  data  which  they  pre- 
sented did  not  afford  sufficient  grounds  upon  which  to  establish  a 
logical  argument.  Nevertheless,  some  courageous  writers,  assum- 
ing the  absolute  correctness  of  these  accounts,  had  no  hesitation 
not  only  in  d^-ducing  from  them  unwarranted  theories  but  also 
in  applying  these  theories  to  works  of  quite  different  character 
in  remote  localities.  As  a  natural  consequence,  the  known  facts 
were  soon  invested  with  a  magnitude  and  importance  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  real  value ;  and  thus  arose  a  belief  in  a  single 
race  or  nation  antedating  the  Indian  and  occupying  the  entire 
Mississippi  valley.  Critical  readers  may  not  have  found  the  evi- 
dence  of   a  nature  to  justify  this  presumption ;    but  an  attempt  at 

(54) 


Work  of  Squicr  and  Davis.  55 

contradiction  was  merely  setting  the  ideas  of  one  person  against 
those  of  another.  An  assertion  that  the  earthworks  are  evidence  of 
a  high  civiHzation  or  an  autocratic  central  government,  could  be 
met  only  by  a  general  denial ;  while  a  statement  that  the  labor 
and  skill  involved  were  not  beyond  the  power  of  known  tribes 
was  successfully  met  by  the  challenge  to  cite  a  single  instance 
in  which  Indians  were  known  to  engage  in  any  such  task. 

Thus'  matters  stood  when,  fifty  years  ago,  Squier  and  Davis 
gave  to  the  world  their  great  work  on  the  "  Ancient  Monuments 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley."  It  came  as  a  revelation,  bringing 
definitely  to  public  notice  the  existence  in  Ohio,  and  to  a  less  ex- 
tent in  adjoining  states,  of  a  class  of  prehistoric  remains  differ- 
ing in  character  from  those  belonging  to  any  other  part  of  the 
country.  All  doubts  as  to  the  high  culture  of  the  Mound  Builders 
seemed  dispelled.  Abundant  proof,  apparently,  was  presented 
in  this  volume  that  a  people,  of  whom  no  known  trace  remained 
but  who  were  certainly  far  superior  to  the  Red  Men,  had  once 
dwelt  in  this  region.  A  firm  foundation  was  laid  for  the  mis-^ 
conceptions  and  erroneous  beliefs  which  have  become  so  firmly 
implanted  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all  persons  who  are  interested 
in  the  science,  but  are  not  in  position  to  investigate  carefully  the 
statements  upon  which  their  beliefs  are  based. 

The  authors  in  question  give  numerous  measurements,  along 
with  many  plates  and  figures,  purporting  to  be  the  results  of 
actual  personal  observations,  in  addition  to  perhaps  an  equal 
number  of  others  from  friends  who  placed  their  surveys  and  de- 
scriptions at  the  disposal  of  the  two  associates.  They  claim  that 
regular  geometric  figures  are  the  rule;  that  there  are  perfect 
circles,  squares,  and  octagons,  and  evidences  of  considerable  as- 
tronomical knowledge  in  the  manner  of  laying  these  out  relative 
to  the  cardinal  points.  According  to  the  figures,  all  lines  are  a 
certain  number  of  feet  in  length ;  enclosures  contain  exact  acres ; 
angles  are  turned  ofif  only  in  degrees.  This  would  be  impossible 
unless  the  builders  of  the  works  had  the  same  system  of  mensu- 
ration that  is  in  use  among  ourselves.  We  find  such  paragraphs 
as  these: — 

"Another  fact,  bearing  directly  upon  the  degree  of  knowledge  pos- 
sessed by  the  builders,  is,  that  many,  if  not  most,  of  the  circular  works 
are  perfect  circles,  and  that  many  of  the  rectangular  works  are  accurate 
squares.  This  fact  has  been  demonstrated,  in  numerous  instances,  by 
careful  admeasurements ;  and  has  been  remarked  in  cases  where  the  works 


56  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

embrace  an  area  of  many  acres,  and  where  the  em6ankments,  or  circum- 
vallations,  are  a  mile  and  upwards  in  extent."  —  S.  &  D.,  8. 

"  The  square  and  rectangular  works  [in]  certain  groups  are  marked 
by  great  uniformity  of  size.  Five  or  six  of  these  *  =i<  *  ^re  exact 
squares,  each  measuring  one  thousand  and  eighty  feet  side, — a  coincidence 
which  could  not  possibly  be  accidental,  and  which  must  possess  some  sig- 
nificance. It  certainly  establishes  the  existence  of  some  standard  of  meas- 
urement among  the  ancient  people,  if  not  the  possession  of  some  means 
of  determining  angles."  —  S.  &  D.,  48. 

An  octagon  "of  large  size,  in  the  vicinity  of  Chillicothe,  has  its 
alternate  angles  coincident  with  each  other,  and  its  sides  equal."  —  S.  & 
D.,   49. 

Such  assertions  are  not  true  in  a  single  instance.  Their  cor- 
rectness has  been  successfully  impeached  wherever  surveys  have 
been  carefully  made  with  accurate  instruments.  It  is  obvious  that 
several  degrees  in  angles,  scores  of  feet  in  Hues,  rods  or  even 
acres  in  area,  have  occasionally  been  added  to  or  subtracted  from 
correct  measurements  either  through  a  disposition  to  ''take  it  for 
granted,"  or  because  they  were  so  saturated  with  a  conviction  of 
resemblance  or  coincidence  between  works  which  in  reality  differ 
widely,  as  to  distrust  their  own  judgment  or  observation  when  it 
contradicted  their  deep-rooted  behef. 

Instead  of  the  absolute  symmetry,  or  identity  in  form  or  size, 
claimed  in  numerous  cases,  there  has  not  been  found  one  true 
circle,  square,  octagon,  or  ellipse,  among  these  works,  nor  any 
two  that  exactly  correspond  in  dimensions.  There  are  some  with 
a  striking  approach  to  regularity ;  but  none  that  can  not  be  laid 
off  with  sight-stakes  and  a  line  equal  to  the  radius  of  a  circle 
or  somewhat  longer  than  half  one  side  of  a  square. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  which  are  easily  to  be  verified  by  any 
one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  make  a  correct  survey,  we  are  at 
a  loss  to  understand  the  animus  of  the  explanatory  foot-note,  in 
which  they  say  : — 

"  To  put,  at  once,  all  skepticism  at  rest,  which  might  otherwise  arise 
as  to  the  regularity  of  these  works,  it  should  be  stated  that  they  were 
all  carefully  surveyed  by  the  authors  in  person.  Of  course  no  difficulty 
existed  in  determining  the  perfect  regularity  of  the  squares.  The  method 
of  procedure,  in  respect  to  the  circles  was  as  follows.  Flags  were  raised 
at  regular  and  convenient  intervals,  upon  the  embankments,  representing 
stations.  The  compass  was  then  placed  alternately  at  these  stations,  and 
the  bearing  of  the  flag  next  beyond  ascertained.  If  the  angles  thus  deter- 
mined proved  to  be  coincident,  the  regularity  of  the  work  was  placed  be- 
yond doubt.  The  supplementary  plan  A  [see  figure  25]  indicates  the 
method  of  survey,  the  'Field  Book'  of  which,  the  circle  being  thirty-six 


Work  of  Squier  and  Davis.  67 

hundred  feet  in  circumference,  and  the  stations  three  hundred  feet  apart, 
is  as  follows : 

1 N.   75   E 300  feet. 

2 N.    45    E 300  feet. 

3 N.    15    E 300  feet. 

4 N.   15   W 300  feet. 

5 N.  45  W 300  feet. 

6 N.   75  W 300  feet. 

7 S.   75   W 300  feet. 

8 ..S.  45  W 300  feet. 

9 S.   15  W 300  feet. 

10 S.    15    E.., 300  feet. 

U S.    45    E 300  feet. 

12 S.    75    E 300  feet. 

(S.  &  D.,  56.) 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  regularity  of  a  circle  meeting 
these  conditions,  provided  the  curve  be  uniform  between  all  the 
stations ;  the  trouble  with  the  symmetrical  figure  thereby  created  is 
that  there  is  no  such  circle  in  the  State.  That  at  Newark  comes 
nearest  meeting  the  measurements  given ;  but  even  it  varies  con- 
siderably from  them.  The  fact  that  the  hypothetical  figure  is 
put  with  the  Harness  works  has  led  to  the  supposition  that  the 
smaller  circle  of  that  group  is  the  one  thus  taken  as  an  illustra- 
tion (see  page  184).  It  is  clear,  however,  that  a  circumference 
of  3,600  feet  and  a  diameter  of  800  feet,  which  is  the  measurement 
given  on  the  map,  cannot  belong  to  the  same  figure.  If  we  sup- 
pose the  lines  to  be  laid  ofiF  on  the  chords  instead  of  the  arcs  of  the 
circle,  as  their  plan  indicates,  the  matter  is  even  worse;  for  we 
then  have  a  dodecagon  with  a  perimeter  of  3,600  feet  inscribed 
in  a  circle  whose  radius  is  only  400  feet.  Besides,  with 
a  chain  of  the  old  standard  length — 66  feet — used  by  them  in  these 
surveys,  no  little  ingenuity  would  be  required  in  laying  out  a  per- 
fectly straight  line  exactly  three  hundred  feet  long,  from  one  fixed 
point  to  another  fixed  point  whose  position  on  a.  constantly  curv- 
ing line  must  remain  unknown  until  the  measurement  is  completed. 
It  is  not  probable  they  ever  made  any  such  survey  as  that  set 
forth  in  their  note.  Nor  is  the  accuracy  of  their  compass  read- 
ings free  from  doubt ;  they  used  an  old  instrument,  borrowed 
from  a  surveyor  of  Chillicothe,  who  had  thrown  it  aside  as  unre- 
liable, and  who  taught  them  how  to  manipulate  it.  Neither  oi 
them  had  any  previous  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  surveying. 
This  was  told  to  the  present  writer  by  Mr.  Kendrick  who  had 


58  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

a  distinct  recollection  of  the  occurrence — his  father  being  the 
surveyor  mentioned. 

It  may  seem  uncalled  for  thus  to  comment  upon  work  done 
so  long  ago ;  and  it  certainly  would  be  unfair  to  criticise  the  men 
who  did  it,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  errors  they  committed  are 
made  the  foundation  of  a  science.  Under  the  circumstances  it  is 
well  to  present  the  mistakes  in  their  proper  light  simply  as  a 
matter  of  justice  to  students. 

Nothing  said  here  is  to  be  construed  as  imputing  any  wrong 
motive  to  the  authors ;  they  made  no  attempt  at  deception,  they 
had  no  previously  formed  theory  to  sustain,  there  was  nothing 
for  them  to  gain  by  the  slightest  perversion  of  truth,  or  by  any 
false  construction  which  could  be  placed  on  their  words.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  any  misleading  statements  are  due  entirely  to  errors  of 
judgment.  In  the  entire  report  there  is  a  manifest  desire  to  rep- 
resent matters  as  they  appeared  to  the  investigators ;  there  is  no 
striving  for  effect,  no  bid  for  notoriety.  They  plainly  did  not 
realize  the  importance  of  the  work  they  had  undertaken,  nor  did 
they  dream  of  the  value  which  would  be  attached  to  their  report 
in  after  years.  They  justly  deserve  the  credit  and  honor  ac- 
corded them  for  the  arduous  labors  which  never  brought  them 
an  adequate  return,  and  for  having  given  to  the  world  knowledge 
that  would  otherwise,  perhaps,  never  have  come  to  light ;  but  none 
the  less  their  faulty  interpretations  have  been  responsible  for 
many  wrong  impressions  and  opinions  with  w^hich  the  working 
archaeologist  finds  himself  obliged  to  contend. 

^•:  H:  Hi  ^  * 

And  yet  Squier  and  Davis  are  less  at  fault  than  are  many 
succeeding  authors  who  carry  to  a  ridiculous  extent  the  fanciful 
conceptions  which  seem  to  them  the  logical  outcome  of  alleged 
measurements  and  resemblances  among  aboriginal  remains.  The 
exactness  with  which  square  and  circular  enclosures  are  said  to 
be  laid  off,  gave  fresh  impetus  to  extravagant  suggestions  made 
before  their  day,  until  now  no  height  of  absurdity  is  beyond  at- 
tainment by  enthusiastic  sciolist  or  venal  charlatan — not  to  men- 
tion some  who  mean  well  but  should  know  better. 


On  the  other  hand,  the  magnificent  collection  made  by 
Squier  and  Davis  stimulated  various  scientific  societies  and  mu- 
seums to  undertake  explorations  on  their  own  account.     In  this 


Early  Writers.  59 

work  men  trained  to  observe  have  gone  into  the  field  and  re- 
ported what  they  saw.  Careful  surveys  and  excavations  have 
produced  some  definite  results ;  not  enough  to  clear  away  all  the 
mystery  enveloping  the  ancient  people,  but  enough  to  destroy  the 
effect  of  unwarranted  opinions  and  assumptions  which  would 
greatly  astonish  the  Mound  Builders  if  they  could  know  what 
has  been  said  about  them. 

But  as  before  intimated,  there  were  two  sides  to  the  question 
long  before  the  publication  of  "Ancient  Monuments."  In  the 
preface  to  that  volume  is  given  a  list  of  early  writers  on  western 
antiquities.  The  first  in  the  Ohio  valley  are  Bishop  Madison  of 
Virginia,  in  1803  (Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  vol.  VI.)  ;  Harris  (Tour  into  the  territory  northwest  of 
the  Ohio),  1805;  Brackenridge  (Views  of  Louisiana),  1814;  Dr. 
Drake  (Natural  and  Statistical  View  of  Cincinnati  and  the  Miami 
Country),  1815  ;  President  Harrison  (Address  before  the  Histori- 
cal Society  of  Ohio),  1832.  Major  Long;  Dr.  Hildreth ;  Henry 
Howe ;  Col.  Charles  Whittlesey ;  and  Caleb  Atwater ; — also  con- 
tributed much  to  the  science  prior  to  the  time  of  Squier  and  Da- 
vis. Atwater  in  particular,  deserves  credit  as  making  the  earliest 
careful  and  systematic  examinations  of  the  aboriginal  tumuli  and 
earthworks.  His  report  was  published  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
Archaeologia  Americana  in  1819.  Most  of  his  drawings  are  crude, 
some  only  rough  outlines,  and  his  descriptions  are  erroneous  in 
many  respects ;  but  when  we  consider  that  absolutely  nothing  in 
the  way  of  excavation,  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  knowledge, 
had  been  attempted  before  his  time,  and  that  in  his  interpreta- 
tion of  what  he  found  he  could  derive  no  assistance  from  any 
source,  even  more  serious  inexactness  could  be  condoned. 

Since  that  time  the  register  of  archaeological  literature  has 
indefinitely — one  is  tempted  to  say  infinitely — extended ;  but 
whichever  side  the  writers  may  take,  they  find  themselves  con- 
fined to  an  endorsement  or  denial  of  beliefs  now  almost  a  century 
old.  Even  so  long  ago  the  line  was  drawn  between  those  who 
attributed  the  earthworks  to  Indians,  and  those  who  would  ac- 
cept nothing  less  than  an  extinct  nation. 

The  most  complete  and  convenient  catalogue  of  writers  on 
aboriginal  remains,  accessible  to  the  public,  is  that  contained  in 
the  American  Antiquarian,  volume  IX,  July,  1887,  under  the 
head  of  ''Early  Books  Which  Treat  of  Mounds" ;  and  in  the  same 


60  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

journal,  volume  XV,  March,  1893,  with  the  title  of  "Private  Serv- 
ices under  Public  Patronage."  Here  may  be  found  the  names 
of  nearly,  if  not  quite,  all  those  writers  whose  published  works 
contain  descriptions  of  mounds  and  earthworks.  The  articles  are 
especially  good  in  their  references  to  authors  of  the  first  half 
of  the  century,  who  wrote  before  so  much  discussion  had  arisen, 
and  who  consequently  simply  told  what  they  saw  or  believed, 
without  any  thought  of  controversy.  An  abstract  or  abridgment 
of  these  papers  could  not  do  them  justice,  and  the  reader  who 
wishes  to  gain  a  full  view  of  the  progress  in  this  science  will  do 
well  to  consult  the  authorities  whose  names  are  given  in  Peet's 
lists.  All  that  will  be  attempted  here  is  to  give  extracts  from 
a  few  of  these  writings,  showing  how  the  subject  has  been  con- 
sidered. They  are  selected  with  the  intention  of  showing  the 
whole  range  of  thought  in  as  brief  a  space  as  possible.  A  hundred 
volumes  could  be  filled  with  other  quotations  without  adding 
materially  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  reader. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  well  to  begin  with  the  following  from 
Foster.    According  to  his  belief  it  is 

"A  summary  with  regard  to  the  origin,  customs,  and  ultimate  fate 
of  the  Mound-builders." 

"As  a  race  their  origin  extends  back  to  a  remote  antiquity.  They 
possessed  a  conformation  of  skull  which  would  link  them  to  the  autoch- 
thones of  this  hemisphere, — a  conformation  which  was  subsequently  repre- 
sented in  the  people  who  developed  the  ancient  civilization  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America.  They  developed  traits  which  distinguished  them  by 
a  well-marked  line  of  division  from  the  Indians  [of  Columbus's  time]. 
Unlike  the  Indians,  who  were  ignorant  of  the  curative  powers  of  salt, 
they  collected  the  brine  of  the  salines  into  earthen  vessels  molded  in 
baskets,  which  they  evaporated  into  a  form  which  admitted  of  trans- 
portation; they  erected  an  elaborate  line  of  defense,  stretching  for  many 
hundred  miles,  to  guard  against  the  sudden  irruption  of  enemies ;  they 
had  a  national  religion,  in  which  the  elements  were  the  objects  of  supreme 
adoration;  temples  were  erected  upon  platform  mounds,  and  watchfires 
lighted  upon  the  highest  summits ;  and  in  the  celebration  of  the  mysteries 
of  their  faith,  human  sacrifices  were  offered  up.  The  magnitude  of 
their  structures,  involving  an  infinity  of  labor,  such  only  as  could  be 
expended  in  a  community  where  cheap  food  prevailed,  and  the  great 
extent  of  their  commercial  relations,  reaching  to  widely  separated  por- 
tions of  the  continent,  imply  the  existence  of  a  stable  and  efficient  gov- 
ernment, based  on  the  subordination  of  the  masses.  We  see  the  crude 
conception  in  the  truncated  pyramid,  as  first  displayed  in  Wisconsin, 
Ohio  and  Illinois,  and  the  accomplished  result  in  the  stone-faced  foun- 
dations of  the  temples  of  Central  America.     And  finally  the  indications 


Engineering  Skill.  61 

are  this  people  were  expelled  from  the  Mississippi  Valley  by  a  fierce 
and  barbarous  race,  and  found  refuge  in  Central  America,  where  they 
developed  those  germs  of  civilization,  originally  planted  in  their  northern 
homes,  into  a  perfection  which  has  elicited  the  admiration  of  every 
modern  explorer."  —  Foster,    349,    condensed. 

A.  —  CIVILIZATION. 

Upon  the  question  of  the  degree  of  culture  to  which  they 
had  attained — or  the  grade  of  their  ''civilization"  as  most  writers 
term  it — we  find  Atwater  saying  prior  to  1820, 

"What  surprized  me,  on  measuring  those  forts  [at  Circleville] ,  was 
the  exact  manner  in  which  they  had  laid  down  their  circle  and  square; 
so  that  after  every  effort,  by  the  most  careful  survey,  to  detect  some 
error  in  their  measurement,  we  found  that  it  was  impossible,  and  that 
the  measurement  was  much  more  correct,  than  it  would  have  been,  in 
all  probability,  had  the  present  inhabitants  undertaken  to  construct  such 
a  work."  —  Atwater,   144. 

Squier  and  Davis  express  the  same  idea  in  summing  up  their 
observations  in  regard  to  various  other  enclosures  which  they 
examined. 

"Such  are  the  predominant  features  of  this  remarkable  series  of 
works.  As  already  remarked,  the  coincidences  observable  between  them 
could  not  have  been  the  result  of  accident,  and  it  is  very  manifest  that 
they  were  erected  for  common  purposes.  *  *  =i>-  \Ye  may  content 
ourselves  with  the  simple  expression  of  opinion,  that  they  were  in  some 
manner  connected  with  the  superstitions  of  the  builders.  There  is  one 
deduction  to  be  drawn  from  the  fact,  that  the  figures  entering  into  these 
works  are  of  uniform  dimensions,  which  is  of  considerable  importance 
in  its  bearing  upon  the  state  of  knowledge  among  the  people  who  erected 
them.  It  is  that  the  builders  possessed  a  standard  of  measurement  and 
had  some  means  of  determining  angles.  The  most  skillful  engineer  of 
the  day  would  find  it  difficult,  without  the  aid  of  instruments,  to  lay 
down  an  accurate  square  of  the  great  dimensions  of  those  above  repre- 
sented, measuring  as  they  do  more  than  four  fifths  of  a  mile  in  circum- 
ference. It  would  not,  it  is  true,  be  impossible  to  construct  circles  of 
considerable  size,  without  instruments ;  the  difficulty  of  doing  so,  when 
we  come  to  the  construction  of  works  five  thousand  four  hundred  feet, 
or  over  a  mile  in  circumference,  is  nevertheless  apparent.  But  we  not 
only  find  accurate  squares  and  perfect  circles,  but  also,  as  we  have  seen, 
octagons  of  great  dimensions."  —  S.  &  D.,  61. 

Later,  they  cautiously  add  somewhat  to  the  above  con- 
clusion, but  are  still  far  from  claiming  for  the  builders  any  par- 
ticular degree  of  advancement. 

"  The  vast  amount  of  labor  expended  upon  these  works,  and  the 
regularity  and   design  which  they  exhibit,   taken  in  connection  with  the 


62  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

circumstances  under  which  they  are  found,  denote  a  people  advanced 
from  the  nomadic  or  radically  savage  state, — in  short,  a  numerous  agri- 
cultural people,  spread  at  one  time,  or  slowly  migrating,  over  a  vast  extent 
of  country,  and  having  established  habits,  customs,  and  modes  of  life. 
How  far  this  conclusion,  for  the  present  hypothetical ly  advanced,  is  sus- 
tained by  the  character  of  the  minor  vestiges  of  art,  of  which  we  shall 
now  speak,  remains  to  be  seen."  —  S.  &  D.,  186. 

"  The  earthworks,  and  the  mounds  and  their  contents,  certainly 
indicate  that,  prior  to  the  occupation  of  the  Mississippi  valley  by  the  more 
recent  tribes  of  Indians,  there  existed  here  a  numerous  population,  agri- 
cultural in  their  habits,  much  superior  to  their  successors.  There  is, 
however,  no  reason  to  believe  that  their  condition  was  anything  more 
than  an  approximation  towards  that  attained  by  the  semi-civilized  nations 
of  the  central  portions  of  the  continent, — who  themselves  had  not  arrived 
at  the  construction  of  an  alphabet.  Whether  the  latter  had  progressed 
further  than  to  a  refinement  upon  the  rude  picture-writing  of  the  savage 
tribes,  is  a  question  open  to  discussion.  It  would  be  unwarrantable, 
therefore,  to  assign  to  the  race  of  the  mounds  a  superiority  in  this  respect 
over  a  nation  palpably  so  much  in  advance  of  them  in  all  others."  —  S. 
&  D.,  273. 

An  eminent  English  author  is  not  satisfied  with  this  guarded 
statement.    He  insists  that 

"  The  ancient  geometrician  must  have  had  instruments,  and  minute 
means  of  measuring  arcs ;  for  it  seems  impossible  to  conceive  of  the 
accurate  construction  of  figures  on  such  a  scale  otherwise  than  by  finding 
the  angle  by  its  arc,  from  station  to  station,  through  the  whole  course 
of  their  delineation.  It  is  no  less  obvious  from  the  correspondence  in 
area  and  relative  proportions  of  so  many  of  the  regular  enclosures,  that 
the  Mound-Builders  possessed  a  recognized  standard  of  measurement, 
and  that  some  peculiar  significance,  possibly  of  an  astronomical  origin, 
was  attached  to  figures  of  certain  forms  and  dimensions."  —  Wilson, 
D.,  I.,  342. 

Short  goes  still  further : — - 

"  The  two  principal  figures  of  [the  Hopetown]  works  are  a  square 
and  a  circle — each  containing  exactly  twenty  acres.  The  discovery  of 
these  geometrical  combinations — executed  with  such  precision — in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  leads  to  the  belief  that  the  Mound-builders  were 
one  people  spread  over  a  large  territory,  possessed  of  the  same  institu- 
tions, religion  and  perhaps  one  government.  These  facts  are  highly 
important  as  shedding  light  upon  the  degree  of  their  civilization.  The 
evidence  is  ample  that  they  were  possessed  of  regular  scales  of  meas- 
urement, of  the  means  of  determining  angles  and  of  computing  the  area, 
to  be  enclosed  by  a  square  and  circle,  so  that  the  space  enclosed  by  these 
figures  standing  side  by  side  might  exactly  correspond.  In  a  word  their 
scientific  and  mathematical  knowledge  was  of  a  very  respectable  order." 
—  Short,  49. 


Unit  of  Measure.  63 

He  also  thinks  the  Cincinnati  tablet 
''  in  all  probability  served  the  double  purpose  of  a  record  of  the  calendar 
and  a  scale  for  measurement."  —  Short,   45. 

No  one  has  ever  been  able  to  fathom  the  thought  that  led 
to  this  singular  surmise.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  the 
Mound  Builders  had  any  idea  of  a  calendar  such  as  is  attributed 
to  the  Aztecs.  As  to  a  lineal  scale,  the  evidence  is  equally  nega- 
tive, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  "a.  large  number  of  measurements  of 
mounds  and  earthworks  in  Iowa"  were  made  by  W  J  McGee, 
with  the  result  of  "ascertaining  a  common  standard  of  25.716 
inches."  —  Essays,  447. 

When  we  consider  that  it  is  not  possible  to  tell  within  several 
inches  at  the  best,  and  in  some  cases  within  several  feet,  of  the 
terminal  point  of  any  earthwork,  the  decimal  proves  more  in  re- 
gard to  the  calculating  power  of  the  computer  than  it  does 
concerning  the  ''mathematical  ability"  of  the  builder.  Another 
surveyor  comes  to  a  very  different  conclusion : — 

"In  1883,  Col.  Chas.  Whittlesey,  of  Cleveland  ("The  Metrical  Sys- 
tem of  the  Mound-builders"),  analyzed  eighty-seven  measurements  of 
Ohio  earthworks  by  the  method  of  even  divisors  and  concluded  that 
thirty  inches  was  about  the  length,  or  was  one  of  the  multiples,  of  their 
metrical  standard.  Moreover,  fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  all  the  lines  were 
divisible  without  remainder  by  ten   feet."  —  Essays,    447. 

These  figures  are  valuable,  in  that  they  show  how  the  meas- 
urements were  made  upon  which  his  calculations  are  based.  If 
there  are  any  indications  of  such  ''units"  as  "thirty  inches"  and 
"ten  feet",  they  exist  only  in  the  minds,  or  diagrams,  of  white 
surveyors  and  explorers.  The  tendency  is  almost  universal  to  run 
indeterminate  numbers  into  tens,  dozens,  scores,  or  hundreds. 
By  accepting  as  correct  the  figures  of  surveys  made  as  these 
have  been,  one  can  plainly  show  any  sort  of  "unit"  or  "system" 
he  wishes  to;  for  there  will  be  coincidences  without  end.  The 
most  striking  feature  of  this  kind,  however,  is  to  be  found  in 
a  group  in  ]\.Iissouri,  whose  location,  unfortunately,  appears  to 
be  known  only  to  its  discoverer.    According  to  his  statement 

"the  chief  mound  measures  twelve  feet  in  height  by  thirty-six  in  diam- 
eter. *  *  *  The  ridges  forming  the  three  sides  of  the  triangle  [enclos- 
ing it]  are  of  equal  length— 144  feet;  their  diameter  is  twelve  feet,  and 
their  height  three,  four  and  five  feet  respectively.  It  is  remarkable 
that  these  heights  taken  together  equal  the  height  of  the  central  mound, 


64  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  that  when  they  are  multiplied  together  the  length  of  the  side  of  the^ 
triangle  is  obtained."  —  Conant;  quoted  by  Nadaillac,    87. 

Of  course  these  alleged  measurements  are  asserted  to  be  in- 
tentional, and  to  have  some  ''mysterious  significance".  The  fact 
is  overlooked  that  the  present  dimensions  cannot  be  the  same 
as  those  which  held  before  the  works  had  undergone  centuries 
of  denudation. 

'K  jji  jjj  >]<  >,i 

Naturally,  such  knowledge  implies  skill  in  smaller  matters; 
in  comparing  remains  in  northern  and  southern  Ohio,  Atwater 
claims  for  the  latter  ''glazed  or  polished"  pottery,  and  a  "great 
number"  of  wells  "dug  through  as  hard  rock  as  any  in  the 
country."  (Atwater,  220.)  Of  course  he  never  found  anything 
of  the  sort.  Neither  is  it  true,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  chapter  on 
stone  objects,  that 

"  the  holes  [in  gorgets,  etc.]  are  sunk  with  perfect  accuracy,  showing 
that  the  implement  was  turned  by  an  apparatus  which  was  far  more 
efficient  and  precise  than  the  human  hand."  —  Foster,   207. 

So  far  as  ability  to  work  in  stone  is  concerned,  we  are  not 
confined  to  a  study  of  such  small  articles  as  gorgets  and  the  like ; 
some  stone  chambers  which  exist,  or  formerly  existed,  about  two 
miles  from  Louisiana,  Pike  county,  Missouri,  have  often  been 
mentioned  as  examples  of  the  skill  of  the  Mound  Builders  in  this 
respect.  It  is  probable  these  opinions  are  based  on  a  cut  pub- 
lished in  the  early  part  of  the  century  in  which  these  structures 
are  represented  as  symmetrical  and  well-made  as  would  be  pos- 
sible by  a  skilled  stone  mason  with  the  best  tools  of  the  trade. 
But  the  accompanying  description  says  "All  the  walls  consist 
of  rough  unhewn  stone" ;  and  that  "although  they  are  at  present 
considerably  decayed,  their  form  is  still  distinct".  —  Beck,  306. 

Broadhead  says  of  a  "walled  burial  place",  "The  walls  were 
constructed  of  rough  limestone  taken  from  the  subjacent'  strata 
of  the  hill".  In  the  peculiar  works  in  Pike  county,  mentioned 
above,  "All  the  walls  were  of  rough  stone".  Nevertheless  the 
illustrations  which  he  gives  of  them  represent  straight  lines,  sharp 
angles,  smooth  curves,  and  accuracy  of  fitting,  such  as  would 
be  possible  only  with  slabs  dressed  by  a  skilled  artisan.  (Broad- 
head,  351-2).  The  cuts  instead  of  the  text,  of  these  descriptions, 
seemed  to  have  furnished  inspiration  to  various  persons  for  the 
assertion  that  large  buildings  constructed  with  great  regularity, 
of  stone  accurately  cut  and  fitted,  are  still  to  be  found  in  this 


Stone  Fort  in  Clark  County,  Indiana.  Qb 

portion  of  Missouri.  The  stones  are  now  so  scattered  that  noth- 
ing can  be  ascertained  as  to  their  original  position. 

The  worst  pubHcation  of  this  character  which  has  ever  ap- 
peared in  a  scientific  disguise,  is  that  of  a  former  State  Geologist 
of  Indiana,  who  furnishes  a  report  and  figure  of  a  most  remark- 
able "Stone  Fort"  at  the  mouth  of  Fourteen  Mile  Creek,  in 
Clark  county,  near  Charleston.  Across  the  neck  of  a  peninsula 
formed  by  the  creek  and  the  Ohio  River,  he  says,  a  wall  is  piled  up 
*'mason  fashion,  without  mortar".  It  has  ''an  elevation  of  about 
75  feet  above  its  base,  the  upper  ten  feet  being  vertical".  The 
plate  which  accompanies  the  report  shows  a  regular  revetment 
of  large  stones,  apparently  dressed,  or  at  least  squared.  A  wall 
along  the  creek  is  said  to  be  similarly  built,  but  is  not  more 
than  ten  feet  high. —  Ind.,  1873,  125. 

Both  the  plan  and  description  of  this  so-called  fort  are  en- 
tirely imaginary.  The  creek,  half  a  mile  above  its  mouth,  ap- 
proaches the  river  quite  closely,  being  separated  from  it  by  a 
solid  rock  ledge  only  eight  or  ten  feet  wide  on  top  at  the  nar- 
rowest part,  with  a  vertical  cliff  on  either  side.  The  creek  then 
recedes  in  a  curve,  forming  a  peninsula  whose  surface  contains 
a  few  acres  of  nearly  level  space.  At  the  lower  end  of  this  is  a 
small  triangular  tract  of  bottom  land  enclosed  by  the  river,  hill, 
and  creek.  The  river  side  of  the  peninsula  stands  out  in  a  bold 
precipice,  extending  from  this  low  land  to  a  considerable  distance 
above  the  isthmus;  on  the  side  next  the  creek  are  similar  but 
smaller  cliffs,  with  some  crevices  or  broken  places,  where  it  is 
possible  to  pass  through  or  over  them.  Beginning  at  the  termin- 
ation of  the  cliff  next  to  the  river,  a  ditch  and  embankment  sweep 
round  the  end  of  the  hill  facing  the  bottom  land,  and  terminate 
at  one  of  the  cliffs  above  the  creek.  Accessible  places  along  the 
latter  side  were  strengthened  either  by  filling  narrow  crevices 
with  stones  or,  where  necessary,  by  building  short  stretches  of 
wall  with  stones  irregularly  piled  up.  When  near  the  isthmus, 
a  wall  of  mingled  earth  and  stone,  taken  from  an  interior  ditch, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  principal  embankment,  leaves  the  cliff  and 
is  carried  diagonally  along  the  hillside  to  a  point  near  the  nar- 
rowest point  of  the  summit,  where  it  ends  in  a  stone  mound 
which  extends  entirely  across  the  space  between  the  river  bluff 
and  the  slope  toward  the  creek.  A  person  approaching  this  end 
5 


QQ  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  the  fort  must  follow  the  narrow  neck  of  rock,  in  full  view  for 
more  than  a  hundred  feet  and  without  any  sheher  or  protection 
from  the  missiles  of  those  within. 

The  wall  at  the  west  end  of  the  hill  was  made  by  first  gath- 
ering rocks  and  earth  from  the  surface  and  throwing  them  pro- 
miscuously together.  Then  a  considerable  ditch  was  dug,  fully 
twenty  feet  wide  in  places,  and  the  earth  heaped  on  the  wall, 
which  contains  sufficient  material  to  make  on  level  ground  a  bank 
five  or  six  feet  high.  Loose  rocks  were  deposited  on  the  outer 
side,  apparently  more  as  a  protection  for  the  wall  from  effects 
of  erosion  than  as  a  feature  of  additional  strength.  Many  of 
these  have  been  hauled  away ;  but  it  is  reported  by  residents,  and 
enough  remains  to  show  that  the  statement  is  correct,  that  in 
places  flat  rocks  were  laid  up  in  a  sloping  wall  against  the  face 
of  the  bank.  There  was  not  a  wall  of  this  character  built  up 
and  earth  thrown  behind  it;  but  the  earthen  embankment  was 
made  first  and  the  stones  laid  one  on  another  along  its  face  to 
prevent  washing;  the  outer  edge  of  each  being  somewhat  within 
the  edge  of  the  one  next  below.  The  reported  "walls"  of  ten  and 
seventy-five  feet  in  height  are  only  the  natural  outcrop  of  the 
heavy,  evenly-bedded  limestones.  It  seems  incredible  that  a 
person  connected  in  any  capacity  with  a  geological  survey,  even 
as  cook  or  mule-driver,  could  ever  have  made  such  a  ridiculous 
blunder  as  to  suppose  them  artificial. 

;■:  ^  ;|;  ^  ^ 

The  utmost  confusion  of  speech  and  thought  results  from 
attempts  to  probe  the  depths  of  this  alleged  civilization.  One 
writer  believes  that  because  in  building  mounds  and  enclosures  — 

"All  of  the  material  must  have  been  laboriously  carried  to  Its  place 
in  baskets,  It  will  be  obvious  that  the  real  labor  expended  upon  some  of 
them  was  not  much,  if  any,  less  than  that  expended  upon  the  largest 
pyramid  of  Egypt.  Such  works  could  be  constructed  only  by  a  people 
who  had  a  compact,  civil  organization,  with  a  central  authority  which 
could  control  the  labor  of  the  masses,  and  with  dominant  civil  or  reli- 
gious Ideas  which  would  Induce  the  masses  to  submit  to  long-continued 
labor."  — Read,  Arch.,  79. 

While  no  one  can  deny  that  such  may  have  been  the  case, 
the  query  naturally  arises.  Why  do  we  not  find  some  better  or 
at  least  some  additional  evidence  of  a  government  of  this  char- 
acter? Certainly  a  separation  of  society  into  rulers  and  slaves 
presupposes  a  degree  of  advancement  in  knowledge  that  would 


Grade  of  Culture.  67 

•develop  some  of  its  members  into  artisans  who  could  at  least  cut 
stone  or  make  bricks.  The  mind  can  not  realize  a  ''compact  civil 
organization"  among  people  whose  limit  of  constructive  ability 
was  reached  in  the  manufacture  of  pottery,  the  carving  of  stone 
pipes  and  ornaments,  and  carrying  dirt  in  baskets. 

Other  writers  lose  themselves  in  a  tangle  of  ideas  and  utter 
strangely  contradictory  sentiments.  One  of  them  tells  us  on 
one  page, 

"For  their  time  and  surroundings  they  had  made  great  strides 
towards  a  permanent  civilization,  and  must  be  ranked  as  one  of  the 
great  people  of  ancient  times."  —  McLean,  89. 

And  on  the  next,  paraphrasing  Squier  and  Davis, 

"We  have  no  evidence  that  they  attained  to  the  same  condition  as 
that  possessed  by  the  semi-civilized  nations  of  Europe,  who  themselves 
had  not  arrived  at  the  construction  of  an  alphabet."  —  McLean,  90. 

Then  he  says : 

"That  they  were  remarkable  people  of  an  original  civilization  there 
is  no  room  for  doubt."  —  McLean,  129. 

And  finally, 

"There  is  one  thing  that  impresses  itself  upon  the  mind  of  the 
investigator.  There  could  not  have  been  a  central  government,  but  there 
must  have  been  separate,  although  cognate  nations.  There  is  a  belt  of 
country  running  through  central  Ohio  from  east  to  west,  entirely  devoid 
of  *ancient  earthworks.  There  were  in  the  state  two  distinct  nations, 
having  different  sympathies,  and  on  account  of  the  disparity  existing 
between  them  they  placed  themselves  wide  apart,  being  separated  by 
the  belt  of  neutral  territory."  —  McLean,    140,   condensed. 

Whittlesey,  while  advocating  a  somewhat  advanced  stage 
for  these  people,  really  marshals  evidence  against  it.  He  under- 
takes to  prove  they  had  high  military  skill  and  knowledge,  while 
showing  they  were  not  at  all  prepared  for  war. 

"The  tools  found  in  the  Ohio  mounds  were  almost  without  excep- 
tion, intended  for  peaceful  purposes,  indicating  a  people  whose  habits 
w^ere  not  warlike.  The  earthworks  must  have  been  occupied  by  a  people 
pTepared  for  defence  without  being  called  upon  to  resist;  weapons  of 
war  have  not  been  found  within  these  fortifications.  The  race  of  the 
Mounds  has  left  us  as  much  in  doubt  in  regard  to  their  fighting  imple- 
ments as  to  their  history.  If  they  had  used  stones  for  this  purpose  to  be 
thrown  from  slings,  or  as  battering  rams,  they  should  now  remain  upon 
the  soil  in  the  neighborhood  of  their  forts;  there  must  have  been  maga- 
zines of  them  collected  within  the  works.  Perhaps  their  forts  were  not 
erected  until  after  a  long  residence  here,  when  they  were  threatened  by 


68  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

warlike  neighbors.  The  period  during  which  they  were  compelled  to  turn 
their  attention  to  military  affairs  was  probably  short;  and,  when  their 
preparations  were  made,  they  may  have  withdrawn  further  south  without 
a  vigorous  defence.  They  constructed  a  large  number  of  strong  and  per- 
manent forts.  We  find  no  proof  that  these  works  were  called  into  requi- 
sition for  defense,  but  the  fact  of  their  existence  shows  that  they  were 
prepared  for  war.  If  so,  they  must  have  had  weapons  of  offense  and  de- 
fence, but  what  they  were  we  cannot  affirm.  Their  stone  axes  may  have 
served  the  double  purpose  of  battle  axes  and  cutting  instruments,  but 
a  people  thus  highly  advanced  in  mechanics  must  have  had  something 
better.  It  is  singular  that  so  few  weapons  of  a  warlike  character  are  found 
in  the  mounds,  while  so  many  forts  exist  in  the  country.  If  the  tumuli 
were  erected  in  honor  of  martial  heroes,  there  should  have  been  in  their 
tombs  the  warlike  implements  which  they  used  in  battle.  Instead  of  this, 
most  of  the  relics  which  have  been  discovered  are  mere  ornaments  and 
symbols,  the  latter  of  a  religious  cast. 

"All  the  contrivances  of  the  race  of  the  Mounds  intended  for  prac- 
tical purposes,  display  skill  of  a  high  order."  —  Whittlesey,  Weapons, 
473-9,   condensed. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  have  not  been  wanting  persons 
whose  conclusions  have  led  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  ad- 
vanced stage  of  culture  claimed  by  so  many,  is  vigorously  disputed 
by  others.  As  far  back  as  1815  Moses  Fiske,  of  Hilham,  Tennes- 
see, anticipated  and  logically  refuted  very  many  of  the  arguments 
propounded  since  that  time  and  still  adhered  to  in  regard  to  the 
origin,  social  condition,  time  of  occupation,  and  degree  of  culture, 
of  the  Mound  Builders  whom  he  calls  ''the  ancient  people"  and 
whom  he  holds  to  be  distinct  from  the  modern  Indian.  He  speaks 
particularly  in  regard  to  his  own  State;  but  much  that  he  says 
applies  equally  to  Ohio.  The  small  conical  or  dome-shaped 
mounds,  he  says, 

"are  pertinently  called  barrows  or  bone  heaps.  But  the  truncated  ones, 
may  have  been  castles  or  to  give  eminence  to  temples  or  town  houses. 
If  some  of  them  contain  bones,  so  do  some  cathedrals.  It  was  probably 
an  honor  to  be  buried  there.  Nor  must  we  mistake  the  ramparts  or  for- 
tifications for  farming  enclosures.  What  people,  savage  or  civilized,  ever 
fenced  their  grounds  so  preposterously?  But  what  settles  the  question 
conclusively,  is,  that  the  areas  encompassed  by  these  ramparts,  were 
chiefly  occupied  by  houses  and  mounds.  The  tokens  are  indisputable. 
*  *  *  Those  who  can  manufacture  iron  will  not  cut  wood  with  a 
flint.  *  *  *  Not  a  chimney  is  seen,  nor  an  oven ;  nor  the  remains 
of  any  bridge  or  dam,  or  well,  or  cellar,  or  wall  of  rocks ;  no  masonry, 
however  rude,  either  of  stone  or  of  brick.  *  *  *  They  must  have 
been  ignorant  of  letters.  Otherwise,  in  a  country  of  slate,  they  who  fab- 
ricated utensils  of  the  hardest  flint,  would  have  left  some  inscription  to 


Grade  of  Culture.  69 

be  deciphered  by  posterity.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  they  were  Welsh. 
If  they  were  conquered,  where  are  the  victors?  And  to  imagine  that  the 
whole  people  became  extinct  by  pestilence  or  some  other  awful  catastro- 
phe, is  an  extravagant  hypothesis,  not  supported  by  any  precedent  in  the 
annals  of  mankind.  The  conjecture  that  they  emigrated  to  Mexico  seems 
quite  plausible.  But  to  suppose  them  refugees  from  Mexico,  is  a  sup- 
position altogether  inadmissible."  —  Amer. ,    I,    300-7,    condensed. 

One  of  America's  most  thorough  students,  speaking  in  refer- 
ence to  the  earthworks,  believes 

"There  is  nothing  in  their  construction  or  in  the  remnants  which 
they  contain,  indicative  of  a  more  advanced  state  of  civilization  than  that 
of  the  present  inhabitants.  But  it  may  be  inferred  from  their  number 
and  size,  that  they  were  the  work  of  a  more  populous  nation  than  any  now 
existing."  —  Gallatin,   147. 

An  eminent  geographer  said  early  in  the  century : — 

"The  mounds  show  no  more  art,  though  infinitely  more  labor,  than 
might  be  expected  from  the  present  Indians.  They  are  mere  erections  of 
earth,  exhibiting  no  other  traces  of  skill,  than  that  most  of  them  are  of 
regular  forms,  contained  under  circular  or  right  lines.  Iron  tools  were 
not  used  in  the  formation  of  them.  Stones  make  no  part  of  them.  Yet 
many  of  the  squares  and  parallelograms  make  a  much  more  conspicuous 
figure,  after  the  lapse  of  unknown  ages,  than  the  defences  of  earth,  thrown 
up  on  the  Atlantic  shore,  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 

"The  only  circumstance,  which  strongly  discredits  their  having  been 
formed  by  the  progenitors  of  the  present  Indians  is  the  immensity  of  the 
size  of  some  of  them,  beyond  what  could  be  expected  from  the  sparse 
population  and  the  indolence  of  the  present  race.  We  know  of  no  mon- 
uments, which  they  now  raise  for  their  dead,  that  might  not  be  the  work 
of  a  few  people  in  a  few  days."  —  Flint,  I,  194. 

Another  thus  records  his  opinion : — 

"Of  one  thing  the  writer  is  satisfied,  that  very  imperfect  and  incor- 
rect data  have  been  relied  upon  and  very  erroneous  conclusions  drawn, 
upon  western  antiquities.  Whoever  has  time  and  patience,  and  is  in  other 
respects  qualified  to  explore  this  field  of  science,  and  will  use  his  spade 
and  eyes  together  and  restrain  his  imagination  from  running  riot  amongst 
mounds,  fortifications,  horse-shoes,  medals,  and  whole  cabinets  of  relics 
of  the  'olden  time,'  will  find  very  little  more  than  the  indications  of  rude 
savages,  the  ancestors  of  the  present  race  of  Indians. 

"Of  ancient  military  works,  I  have  long  been  convinced  that  not 
half  a  dozen  structures  ever  existed  in  the  west  before  the  visits  of  Euro- 
peans. Enclosures  of  various  sizes,  and  perhaps  for  different  purposes, 
with  an  embankment  of  earth  three  or  four  feet  high,  and  a  trifling  ditch 
out  of  which  the  earth  was  dug,  undoubtedly  were  formed.  In  all  prob- 
ability some  of  these  embankments  enclosed  their  villages ;  others  the 
residence  of  their  chiefs  or  head  men.     But  what  people,   savage,   bar- 


70  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

barous,  civilized  or  enlightened,  ever  constructed  a  fortification  around 
five  or  six  hundred  acres,  with  a  ditch  on  the  inside!  Or  what  military 
people  made  twenty  or  thirty  such  forts,  within  two  or  three  miles."  — 
Peck,  35. 

If  the  author  just  cited  had  restrained  his  impatience  to  the 
extent  of  modifying  the  exaggerations  in  his  second  paragraph, 
and  especially  in  regard  to  the  last  two  sentences,  his  opinions 
would  have  borne  more  weight — as  they  deserve  to  do. 

Morgan,  who  has  done  more  than  any  one  else  to  arouse 
critical  investigation  of  fanciful  theories,  goes  to  the  root  of  the 
matter  in  a  few  words. 

"A  people  unable  to  dig  a  well  or  build  a  dry  stone  wall  must  have 
been  unable  to  establish  political  society,  which  was  necessary  to  the, 
existence  of  a  state."  —  Morgan,   219. 

Thruston,  who  has  thoroughly  worked  out  the  archaeology 
of  middle  Tennessee,  presents  the  following  strong  argument, 
which  applies  with  the  same  force  to  Ohio.  The  correctness  of 
his  conclusions  is  beyond  controversy. 

"  The  results  may  be  briefly  summarized  as  follows : 
First.  The  mounds  and  earthworks  of  Tennessee  and  Southern 
Kentucky  are  simply  the  remains  of  ancient  fortified  towns,  vilbges 
and  settlements  once  inhabited  by  tribes  of  Indians,  some  of  whom  were 
more  devoted  to  agriculture,  more  stationary  in  their  habits,  and  more 
advanced  in  culture  than  the  nomadic  tribes  generally  known  to  the 
whites. 

Second.  Nothing  has  been  found  among  the  prehistoric  monuments 
and  remains  in  Tennessee,  or,  indeed,  elsewhere  in  the  Mississippi 
valley,  indicating  an  ancient  civilization  or  semi-civilization.  There  are 
many  indications,  however,  of  a  state  of  native  society,  primitive  and 
rude,  yet,  in  some  respects,  more  progressive  and  advanced  than  that 
found  existing  among  the  historic  red  Indians  at  the  date  of  the  European 
settlement. 

Third.  The  remains  of  the  arts  and  industries  and  the  cranial 
remains  evidently  connect  the  ancient  tribes  that  occupied  the  Cumber- 
land and  Tennessee  valleys  with  the  native  tribes  of  the  West  or  South- 
west, of  the  sedentary  or  village  Indian  type.  They  place  them  in  the 
ethnic  scale  in  the  same  class  as  to  culture  as  the  village  Indians  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  and  as  the  village  tribes  of  old  Mexico.  The  cranial 
remains  and  the  remains  of  the  arts,  homogeneous  among  the  mound 
tribes,  also  appear  to  separate  the  advanced  tribes  of  mound  builders 
from  the  more  barbarous  tribes  of  northern  and  northeastern  In- 
dians.    *    *     * 

Fifth.  The  remains  of  art  and  industry  in  Tennessee  *  *  * 
indicate  that   the   ancient  inhabitants   of  Tennessee   probably   reached   as- 


Grade  of  Culture.  •  71 

high  a  state  of  development  as  any  of  the  native  races  within  the  present 
territory  of  the  United  States. 

Sixth.  The  accumulation  of  a  dense  population  in  favored  localities, 
and  the  progress  made  toward  civilization,  were  probably  the  results  of 
periods  of  repose  and  peace,  that  enabled  certain  tribes  to  collect  in  more 
permanent  habitations,  and  to  pursue  for  a  time  more  peaceful  modes 
of  life  than  some  of  their  neighbors  and  successors." 

"The  flint  implements  and  the  pottery  from  the  stone  graves  of 
Tennessee  evince  a  much  higher  order  of  workmanship  and  degree  of 
skill  than  similar  articles  from  the  Ohio  mounds  or  village  sites."  — 
Thruston,  Tenn. :    16,  ct  scq. 

Contrast  this  conservative  statement  of  a  dispassionate  stu- 
dent with  the  turgid  emanations  presented  in  the  next  few  pages. 
It  seems  almost  necessary  to  apologize  for  offering  them  to  the 
reader;  but  it  is  just  this  sort  of  stuff  that  has  helped  to  form 
the  opinions  of  many  who  believe  such  vagaries  entitled  to  re- 
spectful consideration  as  being  the  warrantable  judgment  of  well- 
informed  men. 

"  With  reference  to  the  civilization  of  the  Mound  Builders ;  *  *  * 
they  came  into  the  country  in  comparatively  small  numbers  at  first  *  *  * 
and  during  their  residence  in  the  territory  occupied  by  the  United  States 
they  became  extremely  populous.  Their  settlements  were  widespread, 
as  the  extent  of  their  remains  indicate.  The  magnitude  of  their  works, 
some  of  which  approximate  the  proportions  of  Egyptian  pyramids 
testify  to  the  architectural  talent  of  the  people  and  the  fact  that  they 
had  developed  a  system  of  government  which  controlled  the  labor  of 
multitudes,  whether  of  subjects  or  slaves.  They  were  an  agricuhural 
people,  as  the  extensive  ancient  garden-beds  found  in  Wisconsin  and 
Missouri  indicate.  Their  manufactures  afford  proof  that  they  had  attained 
a  respectable  degree  of  advancement,  and  show  that  they  understood  the 
advantages  of  the  division  of  labor.  Their  domestic  utensils,  the  cloth 
of  which  they  made  their  clothing,  and  the  artistic  vessels  met  with 
everywhere  in  the  mounds,  point' to  the  development  of  l^ome  culture  and 
domestic  industry.  There  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  people  who 
wrought  stone  and  clay  into  perfect  effigies  of  animals  have  not  left  us 
sculptures  of  their  own  faces  in  the  images  exhumed  from  the  mounds." 

"Their  defences  were  numerous  and  constructed  with  reference  to 
strategic  principles,  while  their  system  of  signals  placed  on  lofty  summits, 
visible  from  their  settlements  and  communicating  with  the  great  water- 
courses at  immense  distances,  rival  the  signal  systems  in  use  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century.  Their  religion  seems  to  have  been 
attended  with  the  same  ceremonies  in  all  parts  of  their  domain.  That 
its  rites  were  celebrated  with  great  demonstrations  is  certain.  The  sun 
and  moon  probably  were  the  all-important  deities,  to  whom  sacrifices 
(probably  human)  were  offered.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  devel- 
opment in  architecture  and  art  which  marked  the  probable  transition  of 


72  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

this  people  from  north  to  south.  Here  we  see  but  the  rude  beginnings 
of  a  civilization  which  no  doubt  subsequently  unfolded  in  its  fuller  glory- 
in  the  valley  of  Anahuac,  and  spreading  southward  engrafted  a  new  life 
upon  the  wreck  of  Xibalba."  —  Short,  96  and  100. 

Fort  Ancient  has  furnished  a  prolific  ground  for  wonder- 
mongers.  At  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  the  three  terraces  are 
situated,  the  current  of  the  Little  Miami  has  worn  a  deep  hole 
in  passing  from  a  bed  of  stone  and  hard  clay  to  one  of  finer,  looser 
material  Washouts  of  this  character  are  quite  common ;  but  no 
such  explanation  of  its  origin  meets  the  approval  of  at  least  one 
visitor  to  the  place.  He  accounts  for  it  in  the  following  manner. 
But  we  are  left  in  ignorance  as  to  the  method  by  which  men  or 
animals  could  find  their  way  into  or  through  a  tunnel  whose  en- 
trance was  at  the  bottom  of  a  pool  ''over  thirty  feet  deep",  and  its 
exit  in  a  mudhole  more  than  250  feet  above. 

"The  river  here  suddenly  expands  into  a  large  oval  basin,  of  such 
extraordinary  depth  and  regular  cincture  as  to  seem  an  artificial  for- 
mation. It  is  said,  that  when  the  railroad  was  under  construction  around 
the  base  of  the  bluff,  the  declivity  being  such  as  to  require  a  foundation 
for  the  road-bed  partially  built  up  from  the  river  bottom,  the  great 
depth  of  the  basin  was  a  serious  obstacle,  and  a  vast  amount  of  material 
was  required  to  make  the  railway  embankment  of  the  requisite  width. 
This  portion  of  the  river  has  for  years  been  designated  by  residents  in 
the  locality  as  the  'deep  hole,'  and  twenty  years  ago,  after  being  par- 
tially filled  by  the  debris  of  the  railway  bed,  was  over  thirty  feet  deep. 
It  is  now  nearly  twenty  feet  in  depth,  with  a  bottom  of  soft  mud, 
washed  in  by  freshets.  The  shores  exhibit  no  such  conditions  as  would 
create  a  whirlpool  or  other  excavating  agency  during  high  water;  and  in 
the  apparent  absence  of  any  natural  cause,  we  might  be  justified  in 
assuming  that  it  was  excavated  by  the  builders  in  connection  with  a 
subterranean  communication  between  the  fort  and  the  river,  in  which 
case  the  terraces  before  mentioned  would  appear  to  have  been  designed 
as  stations  for  guards,  to  protect  the  mouth  of  such  passage  from  hostile 
attempts  during  a  siege.  An  unusually  large  depression  within  the  fort, 
nearly  opposite  to  this  point,  now  filled  with  soft  mud,  washed  into  it 
from  the  surrounding  surfaces,  gives  some  color  to  this  supposition; 
especially,  in  connection  with  a  tradition  of  the  existence  of  some  sub- 
terranean passage  within  the  fort,  founded  upon  the  disappearance  and 
reappearance  of  game  when  pursued,  which  is  held  by  residents  who  have 
been  accustomed  to  hunt  in  the  vicinity."  —  Hosea,  Ft.  A.,  298. 

This  may  be  the  place  to  which  Nadaillac  refers  when  he 
says  that  Mound  Builders'  works 

"are  connected  with  each  other  by  deep  trenches  and  secret  passages, 
some  of  them  hewn  out  beneath  the  beds  of  rivers. '  —  Preh,  Pec,  296. 


Fabulous  Reports.  73 

Early  in  the  century  it  was  recorded  that 

"a  mound  in  Belmont  county,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  opposite  the  mouth 
of  Little  Grave  creek,  and  nearly  half  a  mile  from  the  Ohio  river,  was 
about  15  or  16  feet  high.  At  or  near  the  bottom  were  several  layers  of 
human  bones,  laid  transversely,  in  a  great  mass  of  decayed  matter  five  or 
six  feet  thick.  The  toe  and  finger  nails  were  nearly  entire;  the  hair, 
long,  fine,  and  of  a  dark  brown  color;  it  would  bear  to  be  combed  and 
straightened  out.  Along  with  flint  spear  heads  there  were  also  found 
four  or  five  iron  swords,  the  silver  ferules  on  the  handles  engraved  with 
animal  and  geometrical  figures."  —  Haywood,  327, 

From  Utah,  Kansas,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Texas,  and  perhaps 
other  places,  come  reports  of  corn  dug  from  the  bottom  of  a 
mound,  which,  bemg  planted,  produces  a  bountiful  crop.  As  a 
rule,  the  grain  of  this  corn  is  quite  different  from  any  other  ever 
seen.  An  Arkansas  man  caps  the  climax  of  such  discoveries,  and 
his  report  affords  a  fitting  end  to  these  absurdities. 

"Near  the  great  mound  not  far  from  Osceola  there  is  a  threshing 
floor,  paved  with  adobe,  having  an  area  of  quite  ten  acres.  The  wheat  of 
wide  districts  must  have  been  threshed  on  this  spot,  and  stood  in  bins 
made  of  the  same  material,  the  remains  of  which  are  quite  visible.  This 
threshing  floor  is  buried  quite  two  and  a  half  feet  beneath  the  country's 
surface  by  a  black  loam."  —  Du  Pre,   347. 

Du  Pre's  article  then  goes  on  hysterically  about  "countless 
myriads  of  people";  "skulls  and  thigh-bones  of  giants"  (it  seems 
that  in  all  such  cases  the  remaining  bones  entirely  disappear)  ;  in 
the  swamps  "remains  of  brick  structures" ;  "old  military  road, 
the  product  of  ancient  skill  and  toil" ;  "countless  canals  by  which 
floods  were  rendered  impossible" ;  "many  mounds  constructed  to 
record  the  height  of  floods" ;  "broad  farms  of  hundreds  and  even 
thousands  of  acres,  absolutely  created  by  piling  up  the  earth" ; 
"mightier  tasks  than  those  achieved  by  modern  engineers" ; 
"magnificent  cities" ;  "bronze  idol" ;  "crucible,  suspended  by  brass 
wire" ;  "an  earthen  box  with  a  sliding  lid,  half  full  of  pills,"  whose 
potency  had  "caused  the  bones  of  the  mound-building  patient  to 
become  an  impalpable  powder."  Strangely  enough,  he  makes  no 
mention  of  the  tall  man  with  heavy  whiskers  and  an  unusually 
large  jaw,  who  is  generally  so  conveniently  present  to  afford  a 
scale  of  measurements,  but  introduces  a  novelty  in  the  way  of  a 
"burly  weather-beaten  sailor,"  who  happens  along  just  in  time  to 
pronounce  an  exhumed  pot  "the  water-cooler  of  a  Malay 
Islander."     He  "has  before  him"  wheat  raised  in  Arkansas  from 


74  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

''grains  taken  from  an  ancient  Egyptian  sarcophagus."  "Strange 
but  true  it  is,  this  very  wheat  still  grows  among  the  weeds  and 
grass  that  cover  mounds"  near  Memphis  [Tennessee]  ;  which  is 
sufficient  proof  that  the  Mound  Builders  are  descended  from  the 
Egyptians.  But  because  King  David  'Visited  Araunah  to  buy 
his  threshing-floor,"  and  the  threshing-floor  near  Osceola  con- 
tains "ten  acres,  and  the  same  peculiar  grain  grew  beside  both 
peculiar  threshing-floors,"  the  deduction  necessarily  arises  that 
the  same  race  of  people  "cultivated  the  same  crops  and  garnered 
them  in  the  same  peculiar  manner."  He  mentions  two  mounds 
sixteen  miles  east  of  Little  Rock ;  "  the  loftier  mound  is  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height,  *  *  the  smaller  is  quite 
one  hundred  feet;    its  summit  is  flat  and  an  acre  in  area." 

There  are  no  such  mounds  in  Arkansas ;  and  perhaps  the 
whole  article  is  merely  a  burlesque.  But  statements  equally 
ridiculous  are  frequently  published  in  all  seriousness. 

The  greatest  mistake  that  has  ever  been  printed  in 
regard  to  American  antiquities,  comes  from  no  less  a  personage 
than  America's  most  eminent  historian.  It  is  quite  opposite  in 
its  nature  to  the  general  tenor  of  those  which  have  just  been 
concluded.  It  is  only  fair  to  say,  however,  that  the  following 
quotation  does  not  appear  in  the  later  editions  of  Bancroft's 
great  work : 

"  The  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  has  no  monuments.  The  nu- 
merous mounds  which  have  been  discovered  in  the  alluvial  valleys  of 
the  west,  have  by  some  been  regarded  as  the  works  of  an  earlier  and 
more  cultivated  race  of  men ;  but  the  study  of  the  structure  of  the  earth 
strips  this  imposing  theory  of  its  marvels.  Where  imagination  fashions 
relics  of  artificial  walls,  geology  sees  but  crumbs  of  decaying  sandstone; 
in  parallel  intrenchments,  a  trough  that  subsiding  waters  have  plowed 
through  the  center  of  a  ridge ;  the  tesselated  pavement  a  layer  of  pebbles 
aptly  joined  by  water;  the  mounds  composed  of  different  strata  of  earth, 
arranged  horizontally  to  their  very  edge,  it  ascribes  to  the  Power  that 
shaped  the  globe  into  vales  and  hillocks."  —  Bancroft,    condensed. 

In  many  of  the  above  citations  it  will  be  observed  that  writers 
make  liberal  use  of  the  term  "civilization,"  apparently  without 
any  definite  idea  as  to  its  meaning.  In  fact,  the  word  is  some- 
what loosely  employed  by  modern  writers  on  all  social  subjects. 
It  is  vaguely  considered  to  be  synonymous  with  intellectual  capac- 
ity, with  a  gentle  disposition,  with  refinement  of  manner,  or,  in 
recent  years,  with  the  ability  to  sell  great  quantities  of  manu- 


Planes  of  Human  Progress.  75- 

factured  goods.  Which,  if  any,  of  all  these  qualities  entitles  the 
Mound  Builders  to  be  called  ''civilized"  is  not  to  be  learned  from 
the  volumes  in  which  this  particular  standard  is  claimed  for 
them.  We  must  be  content  with  the  information  that  such  was 
the  case  without  seeking  for  reasons. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  such  rhapsodies  to  the  cool,  logical 
formula  of  a  man  who  devoted  a  lifetime  to  ethnological  study. 
Probably  no  better  scheme  for  indicating  the  relative  standing  of 
American  aborigines  can  be  devised  than  that  of  Morgan,  who 
makes  the  following  classification  of  culture  stages : 

1.  Status  of  Savagery. —  From  the  infancy  of  the  human 
race  to  the  invention  of  pottery. 

2.  Lower  Status  of  Barbarism. —  From  the  use  of  pottery 
to  the  domestication  of  animals  in  the  eastern  hemisphere;  and 
in  the  western  to  the  cultivation  of  maize  and  plants  by  irriga- 
tion, with  the  use  of  adobe  and  dressed  stone  in  houses. 

3.  Middle  Status  of  Barbarism. —  From  the  domestication 
of  animals,  etc.,  to  the  manufacture  and  use  of  iron. 

4.  Upper  Status  of  Barbarism. —  From  the  use  of  iron  to 
the  invention  of  a  phonetic  alphabet,  with  the  use  of  writing  in 
literary  composition. 

5.  Status  of  Civilization. —  From  the  use  of  alphabetic 
writing  in  the  production  of  literary  records  to  the  present  time. 
— Morgan,  Periods,  271. 

According  to  this  plan,  it  is  clear  that  the  Mound  Builders 
had  attained  only  the  second  step  of  five  which  they  must  sur- 
mount before  reaching  a  plane  where  they  could  demand  admit- 
tance to  the  ranks  of  civilized  peoples.  In  spite  of  all  asser- 
tions to  the  contrary,  the  proposition  is  easily  demonstrated. 

They  had  no  alphabet.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  economic 
use  of  iron  or  any  other  metal.  Copper,  galena,  hematite,  they 
had  in  plenty ;  meteoric  iron,  gold,  silver,  in  small  amounts ;  all 
were  treated  as  so  many  stones,  to  be  rubbed,  chipped  or  beaten 
into  desired  forms.  They  had  no  domestic  animals  or  beasts  of 
burden,  for  not  one  bone  of  such  has  ever  been  found.  Cement 
or  mortar  was  unknown.  There  is  no  evidence  that  they  could 
build  with  flat  stones  an  unsupported  wall  that  would  stand 
upright.  They  could  not  dig  a  well.  They  never  walled  up  a 
spring.     They  had  no  hand  mills,  not  even  so  rude  an  implement 


76  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

as  a  Mexican  metate,  though  corn  must  have  been  a  staple  article 
of  food. 

They  did,  however,  manufacture  serviceable  pottery,  often 
of  elegant  design,  though  they  knew  nothing  of  the  potter's  wheel. 
Consequently,  their  place  is  in  the  "Lower  status  of  barbarism" ; 
below  the  Pueblo  Indian,  and  far  below  the  Peruvian. 

'       B.—  RELIGION. 

Connected  with  the  culture  of  any  race,  indeed  forming  no 
unimportant  part  of  it,  is  a  belief  in  the  controlling  influence 
exerted  by  invisible  beings  or  unknown  forces.  It  is  sometimes 
affirmed  by  travelers  that  they  find  savages  who  have  no  concep- 
tion of  a  deity.  This  is  no  doubt  true  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  kind  of  deity  the  traveler  has  in  mind.  Neither  party  has 
any  idea  of  what  the  other  is  thinking  about,  consequently  no 
understanding  can  be  reached. 

Every  person  capable  of  forming  a  definite  thought  must  of 
necessity  believe  in  a  power  of  some  sort,  let  him  call  it  what  he 
will,  which  he  can  neither  see  nor  understand.  This  is  the  germ 
of  religion.  Its  growth  and  development  fodlow  advance  in 
knowledge  and  power. 

What  particular  form  the  religion  of  the  Mound  Builders 
may  have  assumed,  we  do  not  know.  The  most  we  can  say  is 
that  it  must  have  been  of  the  same  general  character  as  that  of 
sedentary  barbarians  now  in  existence  and  unaffected  by  the 
influence  of  traders  or  missionaries.  This  lack  of  knowledge  has 
not  prevented  abundant  theorizing;  in  fact,  it  has  rather  encour- 
aged it,  for  where  nothing  is  known  anything  may  be  guessed  at. 
A  very  few  extracts  will  be  given,  to  show  the  tendency  toward 
the  marvelous.  No  comment  is  necessary  further  than  to  say 
that  no  reason  whatever  is  known  why  we  should  believe  a  word 
of  it,  while  much  that  is  asserted  is  contradicted  by  the  reports 
of  all  explorers. 

"The  mound-builders  worshiped  the  elements — the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  particularly  fire.  They  erected  their  fire-altars  for  sacrifice,  on  the 
highest  summits.  Like  the  Persian  sun-worshippers,  they,  undoubtedly, 
had  their  Magi,  without  whose  presence  the  sacrifice  could  not  go  on. 
No  gifts  were  too  costly  to  be  offered  up."— Foster,   182. 

"  The  simple  mound  so  common  in  the  northern  and  central  region 
of  the  United  States,  represents  probably  the  first  attempts  at  the  imitation 
'of  Nature  in  providing  a  place  of  worship."  —  Short,  80. 


A  Tyrannical  Priesthood.  77 

"  Every  indication  shows  that  it  was  largely  a  government  of  the 
priesthood.  *  *  *  Such  a  government  is  only  content  with  the  com- 
plete subjection  of  the  masses,  which  results  in  personal  servitude,  and 
an  abnegation  of  all  political  and  personal  rights.  It  can  not  be  said 
that  the  Mound  Builders  were  entirely  ruled  by  priests,  but  undoubtedly 
to  a  very  great  extent.  There  were  probably  very  powerful  rulers,  or 
chieftains,  who  had  a  voice  with  the  priesthood  and  who  together  con- 
trolled the  masses,  and  had  supervision  over  their  labor.  The  numerous 
works  of  the  people,  and  the  useless  but  gigantic  tumuli,  give  evidence 
that  they  were  not  free  men,  but  in  a  condition  of  servitude.  These 
men,  by  stupendous  labor,  with  rude  implements,  would  not  have  erected 
of  their  own  accord,  the  Grave  Creek  and  other  mounds  simply  to  gratify 
a  ruler  who  wished  to  perpetuate  his  name.  This  government  appor- 
tioned the  work  among  the  masses  and  selected  the  avocation  for  each 
and  every  one.  *  *  *  While  a  portion  were  engaged  in  toiling  on 
the  earthworks,  others  provided  for  them  the  necessaries  of  life.  *  *  * 
While  they  had  a  very  strong  centralized  and  despotic  government,  it 
is  extremely  doubtful  if  the  race  constituted  one  nation  or  empire."  — 
McLean,   125. 

"  The  impossibility  of  assigning  any  other  purpose  to  which  the 
greater  number,  and  many  of  the  largest  of  these  remains  could  be 
applied,  together  with  other  appearances  scarcely  to  be  misunderstood, 
confirm  the  fact  that  they  possessed  a  national  religion ;  in  the  celebra- 
tion of  which,  all  that  was  pompous,  gorgeous,  and  imposing,  that  a 
semi-barbarous  nation  could  devise,  was  brought  into  occasional  dis- 
play. That  there  were  a  numerous  priesthood,  and  altars  often  smok- 
ing with  hecatombs  of  victims.  These  same  circumstances,  also  indicate, 
that  they  had  made  no  inconsiderable  progress  in  the  art  of  building,  and 
that  their  habitations  had  been  ample  and  convenient,  if  not  neat  or 
splendid.  *  *  *  Thus  much  do  these  ancient  remains  furnish  us,  as 
to  the  condition  and  character  of  the  people  who  erected  them. 

"  The  temples  of  Circleville,  Grave  Creek  and  Newark,  no  doubt 
annually  streamed  with  the  blood  (if  not  of  thousands  like  those  of  Cho- 
lula  and  Mexico,)  of  hundreds  of  human  beings  *  *  *  The  neces- 
sity of  a  double  draft  upon  their  population,  to  supply  the  losses  of  the 
battle  field,  and  the  demands  of  their  own  priesthood,  *  *  *  -win 
serve  to  strengthen  my  conjecture,  that  the  fate  of  the  [Mound  Builders] 
was  hastened  by  their  laboring  under  the  double  curse  of  an  arbitrary 
government,  and  a  cruel,  bigoted,  and  bloody  religion."  —  Harrison,  223 
and  265. 

At  the  smaller  flat-topped  mound  at  ■Marietta  (which  he 
calls  eighty  feet  high  instead  of  eight  feet), 

"  On  the  south  side  is  a  peculiar  kind  of  terrace,  or  platform,  which 
extends  out  from  the  body  of  the  mound  about  fifty  feet.  This  plat- 
form is  supposed  to  have  been  occupied  by  orators  who  stood  in  that  ele- 
vated position  and  descanted  upon  matters  connected  with  their  political 
jurisprudence,  and  their  governments  and  cares;  or  perhaps  it  was  occu- 


78  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

pied  by  priests,  clothed  in  their  sacred  robes,  teaching  their  dying  fel- 
low men  the  road  that  leads  to  the  abode  of  the  gods,  whose  throne  is 
the  sun,  and  whose  eyes  are  twinkling  stars  which  glisten  in  the  heavens." 

—  Larkin,   150. 

"  It  is  probable  that  upon  this  platform  [on  the  top  of  Cahokia 
mound]  was  reared  a  capacious  temple,  within  whose  walls  the  high 
priests,  gathered  from  different  quarters  at  stated  seasons,  celebrated 
their  mystic  rites,  while  the  swarming  multitude  below  looked  up  in 
mute  adoration."  —  Foster,    106. 

"  The  evidences  are  abundant  that  some  mysterious  rites  were  per- 
formed at  the  altar  mounds;  cremation  only  may  have  been  practiced, 
but  we  fear  that  even  more  awful  and  heart-sickening  ceremonies  took 
place  upon  these  altars  as  well  as  upon  the  high  temple  sites  in  which 
human  victims  may  have  been  offered  to  appease  the  elements  or  the 
sun  or  moon  by  their  death  agonies.  What  splendid  cerem.onial,  what 
mystic  rites  administered  by  a  national  priesthood  in  the  presence  of  a  de- 
vout multitude  may  have  accompanied  these  horrible  sacrifices  are  beyond 
even  the  limits  of  conjecture."  —  Short,  85. 

"  Next,  the  uses  to  which  the  mound  and  roadway  at  Fort  Ancient 
were  devoted,  of  course,  rests  largely  in  conjecture;  but  it  seems  not 
improbable  that  upon  this  mound  were  conducted  the  religious  ceremonies 
peculiar  to  the  worship  of  the  sun.  The  imagination  was  not  slow  to  con- 
jure up  the  scene  which  was  doubtless  once  familiar  to  the  dwellers  of 
Fort  Ancient.  A  train  of  worshipers,  led  by  priests  clad  in  their  sacred 
robes,  and  bearing  aloft  holy  utensils,  pass  in  the  early  morning,  ere 
yet  the  mists  have  risen  from  the  valley  below,  along  the  gentle  swell- 
ing ridge  on  which  the  ancient  roadway  lies;  they  near  the  mound;  and 
a  solemn  stillness  succeeds  the  chanting  songs;  the  priests  ascend  the 
hill  of  sacrifice  and  prepare  the  sacred  fire ;  now  the  first  beams  of  the 
rising  sun  shoot  up  athwart  the  ruddy  sky,  gilding  the  topmost  boughs 
of  the  trees ;  the  holy  flame  is  kindled — a  curling  wreath  of  smoke  arises 
to  greet  the  coming  god ;  the  tremulous  hush  which  was  upon  all  nature 
breaks  into  vocal  joy,  and  songs  of  gladness  burst  forth  from  the  throats 
of  the  waiting  multitude  as  the  glorious  luminary  arises  in  majesty  and 
beams  upon  his  adoring  people — a  promise  of  renewed  life  and  happiness." 

—  Hosea,  Ft.  A.,  294,  et  seq.  condensed. 

By  the  "hill  of  sacrifice"  he  means  the  little  mound  a  few 
liundred  yards  east  of  the  fort.  This  was  never  more  than  three 
or  four  feet  in  height. 

C—  NUMBERS. 

The  theory  of  a  high  "civiHzation"  and  a  compHcated 
"rehgion"  involves  the  necessity  of  a  great  number  of  people. 
Accordingly  we  find  such  expressions  as  these : 

"The  conclusion  that  the  ancient  population  was  exceedingly  dense, 
follows  not  less  from  the  capability  which  they  possessed  to  erect,  than 
from  the  circumstances  that  they  required,    works  of  the  magnitude  we 


The  Mound  Builder  as  a  Farmer.  79 

have  seen,  to  protect  them  in  danger,  or  to  indicate  in  a  sufficiently 
imposing  form  their  superstitious  zeal,  and  their  respect  for  the  dead."  — 
S.  &  D.,  302. 

"These  facts,  I  think,  clearly  indicate  that  this  region  must  for- 
merly have  sustained  a  dense  population,  who  derived  their  support 
mainly  from  agriculture."  —  Foster,    124. 

"  In  some  places  *  *  *  they  cover  square  miles  of  surface,  and 
it  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  they  are  the  work  of  a  people  or  peoples 
not  less  numerous  than  the  present  population."  —  Newberry,  P.  S. 
M.,  189. 

"  During  the  period  of  occupancy  by  the  Mound  Builders,  there 
were  certainly  districts  densely  populated,  as  indicated  by  the  remains, 
which  do  away  with  the  idea  of  dependence  upon  the  chase,  and  prove 
that  they  subsisted  upon  the  products  of  the  soil.  *  *  *  Jt  has  been 
estimated  that  in  the  hunter  state  it  requires  fifty  thousand  acres  for  the 
support  of  one  hunter;  *  *  *  ^ve  could  then  have,  upon  the  above 
estimate,  but  five  hundred  and  nine  able-bodied  men,  supported  alone 
by  the  flesh  of  wild  beasts  in  Ohio.  *  *  *  Their  system  of  agricul- 
ture must  have  been  very  complete  in  order  to  sustain  so  large  a  popu- 
lation. These  monuments  arose  slowly,  and  untold  multitudes  toiled 
constantly  upon  them.  In  order  to  have  supported  the  laborers  there 
must  have  been  plenty  of  cheap  food,  which  in  a  well  populated  district 
could  only  be  produced  by  skilled  labor.  Their  chief  subsistence  was 
probably  maize,  *  *  >i=  the  product  of  a  single  acre  [of  which]  is 
sufficient  to  sustain,  for  an  entire  year,  about  two  hundred  able-bodied 
men."  —  McLean,   123-24. 

"  The  vast  amount  of  labor  expended  upon  the  earthw^orks  implies 
that  the  condition  of  society  among  the  Mound  Builders  was  not  that 
of  free  men;  *  *  *  the  state  possessed  absolute  power  over  the 
lives  and  fortunes  of  its  subjects.  This  condition  of  affairs  implies  con- 
siderable advance  in  society,  and  a  complex  system  of  government;  and 
to  maintain  [this]  there  must  have  been  cheap  food.  *  *  *  Maize  un- 
doubtedly constituted  the  great  staple  of  existence.  •*=  *  *  The 
product  of  a  single  acre  furnishes  rations  to  sustain,  for  an  entire  year, 
all  the  way  from  one  hundred  and  tw^enty,  to  two  hundred  and  forty 
able-bodied  men.  The  area  of  the  forest-belt  abundantly  stocked  with 
game,  required  to  support  an  equally  numerous  population,  would  vary 
from  nearly  eight  hundred  thousand  acres  to  more  than  a  million  and  a 
half  acres.  That  the  Mound  Builders  cultivated  the  soil  in  a  methodical 
manner  *  ^  *  jg  evident  from  the  vestiges  of  ancient  garden-beds." 
—  Foster,    346. 

But  the  garden-beds  appear  only  in  a  limited  area,  as  noticed 
elsewhere ;  and  no  indications  exist  that  they  were  ever  made  use 
of  outside  of  that  section.  Certainly  none  were  ever  constructed 
in  the  Scioto  valley. 

The  silliness  of  the  proposition  that  an  acre  of  maize  would 
support  "  from  120  to  240  men  "  is  evident  at  a  glance.     Suppose 


80  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

we  take  the  smaller  figure.  If  we  allow  a  yield  of  sixty  bushels  of 
corn  to  the  acre,  which  is  equal  to  the  average  production  on 
fertile  ground  with  modern  farming  utensils,  each  person  would 
receive  two  pecks,  on  which  he  must  subsist  for  an  entire  year. 
Twenty  times  that  amount  would  not  keep  a  man  from  starva- 
tion. The  ration  issued  to  each  grown  slave. on  southern  planta- 
tions was  a  peck  of  corn  meal,  four  pounds  of  bacon,  and  a  quart 
of  molasses  every  week.  In  some  places  the  family  was  also  al- 
lowed a  small  garden,  with  the  privilege  of  raising  a  few  chickens 
and  a  pig  or  two.  But  the  ration  was  considered  sufficient  to  keep 
them  in  good  working  order. 

On  such  a  basis,  a  village  whose  population  would  require  as 
much  food  as  one  hundred  adult  Indians — or  Mound  Builders — 
would  need  for  a  year's  supply  1,300  bushels  of  corn  and  20,000 
pounds  of  cured  meat.  With  their  crude  methods  of  cultivation 
this  means  a  corn-field  of  at  least  30  acres ;  and  as  freshly  killed 
game  must,  of  course,  have  a  weight  much  in  excess  of  20,000 
pounds,  a  large  area  of  hunting  ground  was  required.  Fish  and 
nuts  were  also  important  articles  of  food,  and  their  use  may  have 
reduced  to  some  extent  the  amount  of  land  needed  for  farming 
and  hunting.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  aborigine  prob- 
ably ate  much  more  than  the  Negro — when  he  had  it  to  eat.  He 
used  in  addition  quantities  of  berries  and  some  sorts  of  wild 
fruits  which  grew  in  abundance  in  these  fertile  lands,  and  which 
added  a  v/elcome  variety  to  his  somewhat  monotonous  dietary. 
^H  *  *  ^  * 

The  considerations  that  governed  the  Mound  Builder  in  his 
selection  of  a  place  of  residence,  are  supposed  to  be  the  same  as 
those  which  influence  his  white  successor. 

"And  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  sites  selected  for  settlements, 
towns,  and  cities,  by  tlie  invading  Europeans,  are  often  those  which  were 
the  especial  favorites  of  the  Mound  Builders  and  the  seats  of  their  heav- 
iest populations.  Marietta,  Newark,  Portsmouth,  Chillicothe,  Circleville, 
and  Cincinnati,  in  Ohio,  Frankfort  in  Kentucky;  and  St.  Louis  in  Mis- 
souri, may  be  mentioned  in  confirmation  of  this  remark.  The  centers  of 
population  are  now,  .where  they  were  at  the  period  when  the  mysterious 
race  of  the  mounds  flourished."  Quotes  from  Brackenridge :  "The  most 
numerous  as  well  as  the  most  considerable  of  these  remains  are  found 
precisely  in  any  part  of  the  country  where  the  traces  of  a  numerous  popu- 
lation  might  be  looked  for."  —  S.  &  D.,  6. 

"The  most  dense  ancient  population  existed  precisely  in  the  places, 
where  the  most  crowded  future  population  will  exist  in  the  generations. 


Primitive  Communities.  81 

to  come.  The  appearance  of  a  series  of  mounds  generally  indicates  the 
contiguity  of  rich  and  level  lands,  easy  communications,  fish,  game,  and 
most  favorable  adjacent  positions."  —  Flint,  I,  193. 

With  the  exception  of  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis,  an  examina- 
tion of  the  census  returns  will  show  that  none  of  the  places  men- 
tioned are  entitled  to  be  called  large  cities ;  and  the  same  is  true 
regarding  various  other  towns  to  which  the  argument  has  been 
applied.  In  the  last  sentence  quoted  may  be  found  a  very  simple 
explanation  of  the  coincidence,  as  far  as  there  is  a  coincidence.  It 
is  easier  to  carry  goods  in  a  boat,  than  on  pack-horses  or  men's 
backs ;  rivers  furnish  water  and  w^ood  with  only  the  trouble  of 
securing  them ;  fertile  land,  easily  tilled,  lies  along  the  banks ;  fish 
was  an  essential  item ;  while  diflferent  sorts  of  game  frequented 
the  water-courses.  These  are  the  necessities  of  life  in  a  new 
country ;  and  they  are  the  only  necessities.  There  is,  then,  noth- 
ing remarkable  or  significant  in  the  fact  that  the  pioneer  chose 
spots  that  had  been  occupied  by  his  predecessor.  As  soon  as  the 
construction  of  roads  opened  up  communication  with  the  "  back 
country,"  and  especially  with  the  building  of  railroads,  the  largest 
cities  began  to  spring  up  where  the  Mound  Builders  never  lived 
in  considerable  numbers. 

As  will  appear  presently,  there  is  no  need  for  supposing  a 
great  number  of  inhabitants  to  account  for  the  creation  of  even 
the  largest  earthworks.     Besides, 

■  "Dense  populations,  an  expression  sometimes  applied  to  the  Mound 
Builders,  have  never  existed  without  either  flocks  or  herds,  or  field  agri- 
culture with  the  use  of  the  plow.  *  *  *  The  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  production  set  a  limit  to  their  numbers.  These  also  explain  the  small 
number  of  their  settlements  in  the  large  areas  over  which  they  spread. 
[A  stone  chisel,  a  wooden  spade,  a  flint  knife]  were  as  perfect  imple- 
ments as  they  were  able  to  command."  —  Morgan,  218. 

The  most  exaggerated  views  prevail  as  to  the  amount  of 
labor  that  must  enter  into  the  erection  of  mounds  and  earthworks. 
For  instance : — 

"No  one,  I  think,  can  view  the  complicated  system  of  works  here 
displayed  [at  Newark],  and  stretching  away  for  miles,  without  arriving 
at  the  conclusion  that  they  are  the  result  of  an  infinite  amount  of  toil, 
expended  under  the  direction  of  a  governing  mind,  and  having  in  view  a 
definite  aim.  At  this  day,  with  our  iron  implements,  with  our  labor- 
saving  machines  and  the  aid  of  horse-power  —  to  accomplish  such  a  task 

6 


82  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

would  require  the  labor  of  many  thousand  men  continued  for  many 
months."  — Foster,   128. 

"The  importance  of  some  of  their  works,  which,  according  to  the 
judgment  of  competent  engineers,  it  would  have  taken  several  thousand 
of  our  workmen,  provided  with  all  the  resources  of  our  grand  modern 
industries,  months  to  execute,  bears  witness  to  an  organized  community 
and  a  powerful  hierarchy."  —  Nadaillac,  85. 

"We  have  seen  mounds  that  would  require  the  labor  of  a  thousand 
men  employed  upon  our  canals,  with  all  their  mechanical  aids,  and  the 
improved  implements  of  their  labor  for  months."  —  Flint,   131. 

"One  thousand  men  could  not  have  performed  the  great  labor"  of 
erecting  all  the  Cahokia  group  in  a  generation.  "If  one  thousand  men 
were  employed  upon  these  great  works  for  forty  or  fifty  years  it  would 
surely  have  taken  nearly  twice  that  number  to  have  supplied  them  with 
food,  clothing,  fuel  and  other  necessaries  during  that  long  period  of  time, 
and  then  again,  we  must  suppose  a  numerous  train  composed  of  women 
and  children  and  feeble  persons  *  *  *  which  had  to  be  fed,  clothed 
and  maintained."  —  Larkin,    143. 

The  author  last  cited  has  found  an  easy  solution ;  he  says : — 

"My  theory  that  the  prehistoric  races  used,  to  some  extent,  the 
great  American  elephant  or  mastodon,  I  believe  is  new.  *  *  *  Find- 
ing the  form  of  an  elephant  engraved  upon  a  copper  relic  some  six  inches 
long  and  four  wide,  in  a  mound  on  the  Red  House  Creek,  in  the  year 
1854,  and  represented  in  harness  with  a  sort  of  breast-collar  with  tugs 
reaching  past  the  hips,  first  led  me  to  adopt  that  theory.  That  the  great 
beast  was  contemporary  with  the  Mound  Builders  is  conceded  by  all,  and 
also  that  his  bones  and  those  of  his  master  are  crumbling  together  in  the 
ground." 

"It  is  a  wonder,  and  has  been  since  the  great  mounds  have  been 
discovered,  how  such  immense  works  could  have  been  built  by  human 
hands.  To  me  it  is  not  difficult  to  belieye  that  those  people  tamed  that 
monster  of  the  forest  and  made  him  a  willing  slave  to  tlijeir  superior 
intellectual  power.  If  such  was  the  case,  we  can  imagine  that  tremendous 
teams  have  been  driven  to  and  fro  in  the  vicinity  of  their  great  works, 
tearing  up  trees  by  the  roots,  or  marching  with  their  armies  into  the  field 
of  battle  amidst  showers  of  poisoned  arrows."  —  Larkin  (preface) ,  and  3. 

Another  common  delusion  is  that  in  many  mounds, — 

"The  singular  circumstance  is  said  to  exist,  and  by  people,  who  live 
near  them,  and  ought  to  know  that,  of  which  they  affirm,  that  the  earth, 
of  which  they  are  composed,  is  entirely  distinct  from  that  in  the  vicinity. 
It  is  of  no  avail  to  inquire,  why  the  builders  should  have  encountered  the 
immense  toil,  to  bring  these  hills  of  earth  from  another  place?" 

"It  is  the  most  inexplicable*  of  all  the  m.ysterious  circumstances,  con- 
nected with  these  mounds,  that  the  material  of  these  immense  structures, 
some  of  which  would  require  the  labor  of  a  thousand  men  for  some 
time  in  the  erection,  should  have  been  brought  from  a  distance.     There 


Time  Required  for  Constructing  Mounds.  83 

is  no  conceivable  motive  to  us,  why  the  earth,  on  which  the  mounds 
rest,  should  not  have  subserved  all  purposes,  that  we  can  imagine  the 
builders  to  have  had  in  view,  as  well  as  that  from  a  distance."  —  Flint, 
I,  195  and  II,  314. 

"At  numerous  places  [at  Fort  Ancient]  are  found  large  quantities 
■of  water-worn  stone  which,  after  an  incredible  amount  of  labor,  have  been 
carried  from  the  river  below."  —  IMcLean,   20. 

Such  statements  are  not  true.  Neither  earth  nor  stone  is 
ever  carried  more  than  a  few  hundred  feet,  unless  in  very  small 
quantities,  for  a  particular  purpose;  as  making  an  "altar,"  for 
example. 

Let  us  bring  figures  to  bear  upon  this  question  of  labor. 
The  largest  mound  in  Butler  county,  is  in  Madison  township. 

"Its  altitude  is  forty-three  feet  with  a  circular  base  of  five  hundred 
and  eleven  feet.  The  hypothenuse  is  eighty-eight  feet,  the  contents  being 
■eight  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty  cubic 
feet.  At  twenty-two  cubic  feet  per  load,  this  would  give  thirty-seven 
thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy-six  wagon  loads,  which  allowing  ten 
loads  per  day,  would  take  one  man  twelve  years  (not  including  Sundays) 
to  remove  the  mound,,  say  a  distance  of  one  mile. —  (Dr.  J.  B.  Owsley.)" 
—McLean,  224. 

If  the  altitude  and  base  are  correctly  given,  the  hypothenuse 
is  almost  exactly  92  feet ;  if  the  base  and  hypothenuse  are  as 
stated,  the  height  must  be  about  34  feet.  This  is  on  the  assumption 
that  the  slope  of  the  mound  is  uniform  and  in  a  straight  line  from 
summit  to  base ;  if  the  surface  of  the  mound  be  curved,  as  must 
naturally  be  the  case,  then  with  the  assumed  height  the  hypothe- 
nuse, if  measured  on  the  ground,  must  be  greater  than  92  feet ;  or 
if  the  measurement  of  88  feet  be  correct,  the  elevation  is  less  than 
34  feet.  Accepting,  however,  the  figures  as  to  the  altitude  and 
circumference,  we  find  the  solid  content  of  a  cone  having 
these  dimensions  is  in  round  numbers  297,800  cubic  feet ;  and  the 
content  of  the  segment  of  a  sphere  of  these  measurements,  which 
is  larger  than  a  mound  exposed  to  the  elements  could  possibly  be, 
is  about  488,000  cubic  feet.  Thus  we  see  that  the  mound  is  cer- 
tainly less  than  three-fifths  of  the  asserted  size.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  cubic  foot  of  perfectly  dry  common  loam,  which  is  the 
material  composing  most  of  the  mounds,  weighs  about  eighty 
pounds;  the  weight  varies  somewhat  according  to  the  moisture 
and  to  the  way  it  is  packed,  but  the  above  will  fall  very  close  to 
the  average  when  it  is  allowed  to  settle  naturally.  If  we  admit, 
for  argument,  the  preposterous  intimation  that  the  average  dis- 


84  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

tance  which  this  earth  is  carried  is  one  mile — though  why  art 
Indian  or  any  one  else  would  carry  dirt  a  mile  when  he  could  get 
it  within  a  few  rods,  is  past  human  understanding — then  if  we 
suppose  a  man  to  walk,  with  a  load,  three  miles  per  hour  he  must 
in  a  day  of  ten  hours  travel  thirty  miles  and  must  carry  for  half 
that  distance  a  load  of  117  pounds,  in  order  to  deposit  upon  the 
mound  as  much  as  one  "  wagon  load  "  of  twenty-two  cubic  feet 
in  a  day.  In  order  to  complete  his  allotment  of  ten  wagon  loads 
per  day,  which  our  author  has  assigned  him,  he  would,  if  we 
change  only  one  of  the  factors  in  the  problem,  have  to  walk  thirty 
miles  an  hour ;  or  carry  over  1,170  pounds  at  a  load ;  or  work  one 
hundred  hours  in  a  day.  No  evidence  has  as  yet  been  discov- 
ered to  justify  the  supposition  that  any  of  the  Mound  Builders 
possessed  such  a  degree  of  speed,  strength,  or  endurance ! 

Observations  in  a  number  of  mounds  indicate  that  the  aver- 
age load  as  carried  in  during  the  construction,  was  not  far  from 
half  a  cubic  foot ;  if  any  difference  the  amount  is  a  little  more. 
Assuming  this  amount  as  approximately  the  load,  the  weight  will 
be  about  forty  pounds  for  loam  and  about  fifty  pounds  for  sand ; 
which  is  as  much  as  a  man  will  want  to  carry  for  any  consider- 
able distance.  By  carrying  thirty  loads  a  day  of  this  size  —  a 
reasonable  estimate,  for  such  an  amount — a  laborer  would  add 
fifteen  cubic  feet  to  the  pile  every  day.  If  we  allow  450,000  cubic 
feet  for  the  solidity  of  the  mound  in  question — which  is  certainly 
beyond  the  actual  amount — one  hundred  men  will  complete  it  in 
300  working  days ;  that  is,  within  one  year.  Not  a  yard  of  this 
earth  need  be  carried  more  than  600  feet ;  for  if  a  circle  be  laid  off 
with  this  radius  and  the  earth  removed  to  a  uniform  depth  of  a 
small  fraction  less  than  five  inches  (excluding  that  portion  of 
the  area  on  which  the  mound  stands)  the  amount  so  obtained  will 
be  ample  for  the  construction  of  the  tumulus. 

Suppose  we  put  the  calculation  in  a  different  form.  A  regu- 
lar cone  twenty  feet  high  and  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter  at 
the  base,  will  contain  1940  cubic  yards.  For  one  mound  that  will 
exceed  this  size  there  are  a  hundred  that  will  fall  below  it.  Tak- 
ing it  as  the  average,  and  accepting  the  usual  estimate  of  10,000 
as  correct,  the  entire  amount  of  earth — and  stone — in  the  mounds 
of  the  State  will  be  about  19,400,000  cubic  yards. 

A  regular  enclosure  1,000  feet  square  or  1,275  ^^^t  in  diame- 
ter, measuring  twenty  feet  in  breadth  at  the  top,  forty  feet  at  the 
base,  and  six  feet  high,  with  four  gateways  each  twenty-five  feet 


Twic  Required  for  Constructing  Mounds.  85 

wide,  will  contain  26,000  cubic  yards.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any 
one,  except  two  or  three  hill-top  forts,  is  so  large.  The  equiva- 
lent of  four  hundred  such  will  fully  equal  the  contents  of  all  en- 
closures, making  in  all  about  30,000,000  cubic  yards  for  the  entire 
solid  contents  of  aboriginal  remains  in  Ohio.  No  one  familiar 
with  them  will  dispute  the  liberality  of  these  figures. 

The  lenticular  masses  noticed  in  so  many  mounds,  each  of 
which  represents  the  amount  carried  in  at  a  load,  vary  in  volume 
from  a  peck  to  two  pecks ;  if  the  average  load  be  taken  at  one-half 
a  cubic  foot,  it  will  represent  almost  the  mean  between  these  fig- 
ures. It  would  require  104,760  such  loads  to  complete  the  mound. 
Twenty  of  these  loads  would  be  an  easy  task  for  one  day ;  with 
fifty  persons  continually  at  work,  1,000  loads  would  be  piled  up 
each  day.  Consequently  one  hundred  and  five  working  days 
would  see  the  mound  completed. 

With  the  same  force  working  in  the  same  way,  an  embank- 
ment of  the  size  above  given  could  be  finished  in  1404  days. 

But  a  village  which  would  require  an  enclosure  of  such  mag- 
nitude could  furnish  a  much  larger  force  of  workmen ;  if  200 
were  steadily  engaged,  the  wall  could  be  easily  finished  within 
a  year ;  while,  with  the  same  number,  less  than  a  month  would  be 
needed  for  the  mound. 

On  the  estimate  of  30,000,000  cubic  yards  for  the  prehistoric 
works  of  the  State,  one  thousand  men,  each  working  three  hun- 
dred days  in  a  year,  and  carrying  one  wagon  load  of  earth  or 
stone  in  a  day,  could  construct  all  the  works  in  Ohio  within  a 
eentury. 

To  show  that  a  load  of  the  size  indicated  is  not  excessive,  it 
may  be  stated  that  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  where  goods 
must  be  conveyed  by  porters  and  carriers,  the  long  distance  load 
for  a  man  (or  woman)  varies  from  80  to  180  pounds.  The  aver- 
age seems  to  be  not  far  from  100  pounds.  In  Martinique,  accord- 
ing to  Hearn,  "women  can  walk  all  day  long  up  and  down  hill 
in  the  hot  sun,  with  shoes,  carrying  loads  of  from  100  to  150 
pounds  on  their  heads."  "  The  slaves  are  almost  the  only  car- 
riers of  burdens  in  Rio  Janeiro.  *  *  *  The  usual  load  is 
about  200  pounds." —  Mason,  Travel,  480-483. 

Forty  deck-hands  on  a  western  steamboat,  working  steadily, 
will  transfer  10,000  bushels  of  corn  from  the  bank  to  the  vessel 
in  one  day.  An  equal  weight  of  dry  earth  will  make  a  mound 
forty  feet  in  diameter  and  ten  feet  high. 


86  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


D.— EXTENT. 

The  idea  of  a  vast  empire  possesses  a  fascination  for  nearly 
all  who  become  interested  in  American  antiquities.  The  real  sig- 
nificance of  important  facts  has  been  so  obscured  by  this  delusion 
that  many  careful  workers  whose  opportunities  for  observation 
were,  and  are,  of  the  best,  have  been  led  to  a  faulty  interpretation 
of  their  discoveries.  Frequently  they  seem  on  the  point  of  ap- 
prehending the  truth  in  regard  to  differences  which  can 
scarcely  be  overlooked ;  but  the  pathway  in  the  other  direction 
is  too  attractive  to  be  deserted. 

Squier  and  Davis  say,  in  the  introduction  to  their  great  vol- 
ume, 

"  It  yet  remains  to  be  seen  whether  all  the  ancient  monuments  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  were  constructed  upon  similar  principles;  whether 
they  denote  a  common  origin,  and  whether  they  were  contemporaneous 
or  otherwise  in  their  erection.  It  remains  to  be  settled  whether  the  simi- 
lar and  anomalous  structures  of  Wisconsin  and  the  Northwest  are  part  of 
the  same  grand  system  of  defensive,  religious,  and  sepulchral  monuments 
found  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  more  imposing,  if  not  more  singu- 
lar remains  which  abound  in  the  Southern  States."  —  S.  &  D.,  Introduc- 
tion,  xxxviii. 

If  they  could  have  followed  their  investigations  into  the 
regions  mentioned,  as  Squier  alone  afterward  did  in  New  York, 
they  would  never  have  countenanced  the  theory  of  a  single  race 
occupying  all  this  territory.  They  appear,  indeed,  to  have 
reached  this  belief  by  degrees ;  for  later  we  find  them  saying : — 

"  There  seems  to  have  existed  a  System  of  Defences  extending  from 
the  sources  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Alleghany  in  New  York,  diagonally 
across  the  country,  through  central  and  northern  Ohio,  to  the  Wabash. 
Within  this  range  the  works  which  are  regarded  as  defensive  are  largest 
and  most  numerous.  If  an  inference  may  be  drawn  from  this  fact,  it 
is  that  the  pressure  of  hostilities  was  from  the  north-east ;  or  that,  if  the 
tide  of  migration  flowed  from  the  south,  it  received  its  final  check  upon 
this  line.  On  the  other  hypothesis,  that  in  the  region  originated  a  semi- 
civilization  which  subsequently  *  *  attained  its  height  in  Mexico,  we 
may  suppose  that  from  this  direction  came  the  hostile  savage  hordes,, 
before  whose  incessant  attacks  the  less  warlike  Mound  Builders  gradually 
receded,  or  *  *  entirely  disappeared.  Upon  either  assumption,  it  is 
clear  that  the  contest  was  a  protracted  one,  and  that  the  race  of  the 
mounds  was  for  a  long  period  constantly  exposed  to  attack.  *  *  In  the 
vicinity  of  those  localities,  where,  from  the  amount  of  remains,  it  appears 
that  the  ancient  population  was  most  dense,  we  almost  invariably  find  one 
or  more  works  of  a  defensive  character." 


Unity  of  Mound  Builders.  87 

"  It  may  be  suggested  that  there  existed  among  the  Mound  Builders 
a  state  of  society  something  like  that  which  prevailed  among  the  Indians ; 
that  each  tribe  had  its  separate  seat,  maintaining,  with  its  own  inde- 
pendence, an  almost  constant  warfare  against  its  neighbors,  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, possessing  its  own  'castle,'  as  a  place  of  final  resort  when  in- 
vaded by  a  powerful  foe.  Apart  from  the  fact,  however,  that  the  Indians 
were  hunters  averse  to  labor,  and  not  known  to  have  constructed  any 
works  approaching  in  skillfulness  of  design  or  in  magnitude  those  under 
notice,  there  is  almost  positive  evidence  that  the  Mound  Builders  were 
an  agricultural  people  considerably  advanced  in  the  arts,  possessing  a 
great  uniformity  throughout  the  whole  region  which  they  occupied,  in 
manners,  habits,  and  religion, — a  uniformity  sufficiently  well  marked  to 
identify  them  as  a  single  people,  having  a  common  origin,  a  common  mode 
of  life,  and,  as  an  almost  necessary  consequence,  common  sympathies,  if 
not  a  common  and  consolidated  government."  —  S.  &  D. ,   44. 

These  opinions  were  based  upon  reports  made  to  them  by 
other  parties,  and  are  not  the  result  of  personal  examinations  by 
the  authors.  They  seem  to  have  no  doubt  of  the  correctness  of 
the  position  thus  assumed;  for  toward  the  close  of  their  work 
they  practically  repeat  their  language  in  these  sentences :  — 

That  the  ancient  population  of  the  Mississippi  valley  "was  numer- 
ous and  widely  spread,  is  evident  from  the  number  and  magnitude  of 
the  ancient  monuments,  and  the  extensive  range  of  their  occurrence. 
That  it  was  essentially  homogeneous,  in  customs,  habits,  religion,  and 
government,  seems  very  well  sustained  by  the  great  uniformity  which  the 
ancient  remains  display,  not  only  as  regards  position  and  form,  but  in 
respect  also  to  those  minor  particulars,  which  not  less  than  the  more 
obvious  and  imposing  features,  assist  us  in  arriving  at  correct  conclu- 
sions. This  opinion  can  be  in  no  way  affected,  whether  we  assume  that 
the  ancient  race  was  at  one  time  diffused  over  the  entire  valley,  or  that 
it  migrated  slowly  from  one  portion  of  it  to  the  other,  under  the  pressure 
of  hostile  neighbors  or  the  attractions  of  a  more  genial  climate.  The 
differences  *  *  *  between  the  monuments  of  the  several  portions 
of  the  valley,  of  the  northern,  southern,  and  central  divisions,  are 
not  sufficiently  marked  to  authorize  the  belief  that  they  were  the  works 
of  separate  nations.  The  features  common  to  all  are  elementary,  and 
identify  them  as  appertaining  to  a  single  grand  system,  owing  its  origin 
to  a  family  of  men,  moving  in  the  same  general  direction,  acting  under 
common  impulses,  and  influenced  by  similar  causes."  —  S.  &  D. ,  301, 
et.  seq. 

Following  the  line  indicated  by  Squier  and  Davis,  a  host 
of  lesser  writers  have  advocated  the  theory  of  a  great  nation, 
often  carrying  their  language  into  the  ridiculous.  It  would  be 
tiresome  merely  to  give  a  list  of  names  of  such  authors;  but 
extracts  from  the  works  of  a  few  may  not  be  out  of  place,  as 
thev  will  serve  to  show  the  prevalence  of  the  error. 


88  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  remains  of  this  mysterious  people  known  as  the  Mound 
Builders  are  spread  over  thousands  of  square  miles  of  the  United  States. 
*  *  *  The  entire  valley  region  of  the  Missouri,  Mississippi  and  Ohio 
rivers  with  that  of  their  affluents  was  occupied  by  this  remarkable  people — 
presenting  us  with  a  parallel  to  the  ancient  civilization  which  flourished  in 
the  earliest  times  on  the  watercourses  of  the  old  world." 

"  All  the  way  up  through  the  Yellowstone  region  and  on  the  upper 
tributaries  of  the  Missouri  mounds  are  found  in  profusion.  (Note.)  — 
The  proof  is  conclusive  that  the  head-waters  of  the  Missouri  was  one  of 
their  ancient  seats."  —  Short,  27  and  31. 

"  In  choosing  this  vast  region  bang  between  the  great  lakes  and 
the  gulf  of  Mexico,  and  extending  from  the  Alleghenies  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  consisting  of  a  great  system  of  plains,  the  Mound 
Builders  exercised  great  foresight  and  wisdom."  —  McLean,    14. 

The  last  quotation  is  about  as  sensible  as  to  say  that  a  man 
displayed  great  literary  inclinations  by  electing  to  be  born  in 
Boston.  Did  the  Mound  Builders  examine  the  entire  country 
before  deciding  to  settle  in  it? 

"If,  as  is  generally  conceded,  the  Mound  Builders  were  of  the  same 
race  that  wrought  in  Lake  Superior  copper  mines,  built  the  pyramids  of 
Mitla  and  Coahuila,  monoliths  at  Copan,  the  temples  in  Arizona,  and  in 
Yucatan,   Mexico,  and  Peru, — "  etc.,  etc.,   for  quantity.  —  Du  Pre,  347. 

The  next  one  is  a  gem:  — 

"A  people,  the  sun  of  whose  empire  once  arose  beyond  the  northern 
lakes  and  extended  south  to  where  great  rivers  send  down  their  turbid 
waters  to  meet  the  ocean's  tide;  and  further  still,  to  a  land  of  wealth 
and  flowers,  where  the  golden  fruits  hang  in  tempting  clusters,  unborn 
of  human  toil,  and  thence  o'er  ocean  isles,  ere  it  is  lost  in  the  western 
wave."  —  Larkin,   21. 

Foster  thinks 

"  There  are  evidences  which  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  the 
junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  was  the  seat  of  the  Mound 
Builders'  empire;  not  that  the  mounds  are  the  most  conspicuous,  or  the 
investing  lines  are  more  intricate  —  for  the  latter  are  almost  entirely 
absent  —  but  it  formed  a  radiating  point  between  widely  separated 
regions.  The  navigable  streams  were  the  great  highways,  and  when 
we  glance  at  a  map,  and  trace  the  courses  of  the  various  tributaries  of 
the  Great  River,  we  see  how  vast  a  region  could  be  traversed  by  an 
easy  and  expeditious  communication,  without  resort  to  artificial  con- 
structions."—  Foster,   109. 

It  seems  he  has  no  other  reason  for  this  opinion  than  the 
junction  here  of  two  large  rivers,  which  he  learned  by  "glancing 
at  a  map."  Not  only  are  there  no  mounds  within  a  long  distance 
of  Cairo,  but  there  is  no  spot  within  many  miles  which  is  not 


Garden  Beds.  89 

subject  to  frequent  overflow.  The  bottom  lands  are  swamps  a 
part  of  the  year  while  the  uplands,  the  nearest  of  them  miles 
away,  are  infertile,  rough,  and  poorly  adapted  for  cultivation. 

Perhaps  the  most  ingenious,  though  of  course  uninten- 
tional, perversion  of  ''evidence"  is  that  of  Schoolcraft,  in  his 
statement  that 

"  There  is  strong  evidence  *  *  *  that  the  teocalli  type  of  Indian 
civilization,  so  to  call  it,  developed  itself  from  the  banks  of  the  Ohio 
*  *  *  west  and  northwestwardly  *  *  *  toward  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  borders  of  Wisconsin  territory.  The  chief  evidences  of  it,  in  Mich- 
igan and  Indiana,  consist  of  a  remarkable  series  of  curious  garden  beds, 
or  accurately  furrowed  fields.  *  *  *  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  too, 
that  no  large  tumuli  or  teocalli  exist  in  this  particular  region  of  the  west, 
the  ancient  population  of  which  may  therefore  be  supposed  to  have  been 
borderers,  or  frontier  bands,  who  resorted  to  the  Ohio  Valley  as  their 
capital  or  place  of  annual  visitation.  All  the  mounds  scattered  through 
Northern  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Michigan  are  mere  barrows  or  repositories  of 
the  dead. —  Schoolcraft,  317. 

Not  only  are  there  no  garden-beds  ''on  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio,"  but  there  is  nothing  at  all  resembling  them  anywhere 
within  the  borders  of  the  State.  Their  utter  lack  of  resem- 
blance to  any  remains  in  the  Scioto  Valley  is  one  of  the  strongest 
proofs  that  they  are  due  to  entirely  different  people.  As 
described  by  Schoolcraft  himself 

"They  extend,  so  far  as  observed,  ovef  the  level  and  fertile  prairie- 
lands  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  ranging  from  the  source  of 
the  Wabash,  and  of  the  west  branch  of  the  Miami  of  the  Lakes  [Maumee] 
to'  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Joseph's,  the  Kalamazoo,  and  the  Grand  River 
of  Michigan.  The  Indians  represent  them  to  extend  from  the  latter 
point,  up  the  peninsula  north  to  the  vicinity  of  Michillimacinac.  They 
are  of  various  sizes,  covering,  generally,  from  twenty  to  one  hundred 
acres.  Some  of  them  are  reported  to  embrace  even  three  hundred  acres. 
As  a  general  fact,  they  exist  in  the  richest  soil,  as  it  is  found  in  the 
prairie  and  burr  oak  plains." — Schoolcraft,    History,    I,    55. 

A  better  description  is  furnished  by  Hubbard,  who  gives  their 
area  and  extent  along  with  figures  of  eight  different  classes  of 
these  remains ;  all  in  narrow  raised  ridges,  and  all  forming  rect- 
angular plats,  except  one,  which  is  circular.  They  are  all  "in 
the  valleys  of  the  St.  Joseph  and  Grand  Rivers,  where  they 
occupy  the  most  fertile  of  the  prairie  land  and  burr-oak  plains; 
principally  in  the  counties  of  St.  Joseph,  Cass,  and  Kalamazoo." 
Some  of  the  gardens  contained  lOO  acres  or  more,  in  small  plats ; 
and  there  were  several  thousand  acres  in  all. —  Hubbard,  Gardens. 


90  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

It  is  probable  these  were  erected,  like  the  mounds  in  low- 
lands of  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the 
cultivated  soil  above  the  general  level  in  order  that  crops  would 
not  be  drowned  by  heavy  rains. 

The  next  quotation,  from  Foster,  shows  that  Colonel  Whit- 
tlesey recognized  the  distinction  between  the  different  classes  of 
remains  and  was  disposed  to  assign  each  to  a  different  tribe. 
Foster,  however,  refuses  to  see  the  way  when  it  is  thus  pointed 
out  to  him,  and  dismisses  as  unworthy  of  consideration  the  very 
features  which  go  to  prove  the  different  origin  of  works  in  dif- 
ferent sections. 

"The  region  adjacent  to  Lake  Erie  contains  ancient  earthworks, 
which  differ  somewhat  from  those  of  the  Ohio  valley.  Squier  was  dis- 
posed to  regard  these  works  as  much  more  recent  than  those  of  the  true 
Mound-builders,  in  fact,  as  belonging  to  the  Iroquois.  Colonel  Whit- 
tlesey, however,  claims  for  them  as  high  an  antiquity,  but  belonging  to- 
a  different  nation.  He  thinks  there  were  three  distinct  nations;  first, 
in  the  Ohio  valley,  the  Agricultural  Nation;  secondly,  the  Fort  builders 
on  the  Lakes,  the  Military  Nation;  third,  between  the  Mississippi  and 
Lake  Michigan,  the  Effigy  Nation.  I  hardly  see  the  necessity  for  this 
assignment.  Recognizing  these  minor  distinctions,  it  might  be  claimed' 
that  the  earthworks  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  were  constructed  by  a. 
different  people,  for  the  reason  that  all  the  mounds  are  destitute  of 
enclosures;  and  that  those  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  were  the  work  of 
still  another  people,  because  the  truncated  pyramidal  form  predominates, 
and  are  rarely  enclosed.  In  what  may  be  called  the  frontier  of  the 
Mound-builders'  empire  it  became  necessary  to  fortify  against  sudden 
irruptions  of  the  enemy,  and  hence  the  enclosures;  but  as  we  penetrate  the 
heart  of  the  empire,  these  structures  disappear."  —  Foster,  144,  con- 
densed. 

The  few  flat-topped  mounds  in  Ohio  are  sometimes  ad- 
duced as  evidence  of  the  relationship  of  their  builders  to  tribes 
of  the  southern  states  where  this  form  is  common.  Only  those 
within  the  larger  enclosin*e  at  Marietta  are  of  a  size  to  render 
them  worthy  of  comparison  with  similar  structures  at  St.  Louis 
and  farther  south;  and  the  height  even  of  these  is  relatively 
insignificant.  As  no  others  of  the  class  are  found  in  the  state 
(except  very  small  ones),  and  as  the  enclosure  surrounding 
them  is  not  duplicated  outside  of  the  Ohio  region,  it  is  more 
than  probable  the  Marietta  mounds  are  merely  a  coincidence, 
or  due  to  the  suggestion  or  influence  of  visitors  in  either  direction. 

The  Serpent,  the  Opossum,  and  a  few  nondescript  eleva- 
tions in  other  parts  of  the  state  which  are  supposed  to  resemble 


Eifigy  Mounds.  91 

some  animal  or  other,  have  induced  a  behef  that  their  builders 
were  in  some  manner  related  to  or  connected  with  the  people  to 
whom  are  due  the  effigy  mounds  of  the  upper  Mississippi.  The 
latter  works  have  now  been  very  thoroughly  examined;  and  in 
the  light  of  this  knowledge  we  can  affirm  with  certainty  what 
was  said  fifty  years  ago,  namely,  that 

"  From  the  information  which  we  possess  concerning  the  animal 
effigies  of  Wisconsin,  it  does  not  appear  probable  that  they  were  con- 
structed for  a  common  purpose  with  those  of  Ohio.  They  occur  usually 
in  considerable  numbers,  in  ranges,  upon  the  level  prairies ;  while  the  few 
which  are  found  in  Ohio  occupy  elevated  and  commanding  positions, — 
'high  places,'  as  if  designed  to  be  set  apart  for  sacred  purposes.  An 
'altar,'  if  we  may  so  term  it,  is  distinctly  to  be  observed  in  the  oval  en- 
closure connected  with  the  'Great  Serpent;'  one  is  equally  distinct  near 
the  Granville  work,  and  another  in  connection  with  the  lesser  but  equally 
interesting  work  near  Tarlton.  If  we  were  to  deduce  a  conclusion  from 
these  premises,  it  would  certainly  be,  that  these  several  effigies  possessed 
a  symbolical  meaning,  and  were  the  objects  of  superstitious  regard."  — 
S.  &D.,  101. 

The  conclusion  would  be  as  easily  arrived  at,  were  there  no 
"  altars  "  about  these  works ;  whether  it  be  the  correct  one  or 
not,  is  another  question.  Any  one  "has  a  right"  to  form  a  con- 
clusion in  regard  to  those  things  which  transcend  his  knowledge 
or  understanding ;  and,  equally,  he  "has  a  right"  to  deny  the  con- 
clusion of  any  one  else.  Where  nothing  can  be  proven,  much 
may  be  asserted  without  fear  of  successful  contradiction.  Tlie 
comparison  with  the  works  of  Wisconsin  is  a  little  unfortunate 
in  one  respect.  Many  of  the  effigies  in  that  state  are  on  hills 
much  higher  than  any  on  which  an  effigy  occurs  in  Ohio.  The 
only  similarity  in  the  two  systems  is  that  some  figures  in  each 
have  a  tolerably  close  resemblance  to  an  animal ;  though  it  is 
difficult  and  often  impossible  to  discover  what  animal  it  is  that 
is  intended  to  be  thus  commemorated.  For  one  thing,  we  are 
told 

"  The  human  figure  is  not  uncommon  among  the  effigies,  and  is  al- 
ways characterized  by  the  extraordi-nary  and  unnatural  length  of  the 
arms."  — S.  &  D.,  126. 

The  persons  who  have  identified  the  various  animal  forms 
of  Wisconsin  are  not  experts  in  zoological  knowledge;  even 
if  they  were,  they  would  have  considerable  difficulty  in  naming 
the  remains.  For  example  the  same  group  is  called  "  buffaloes  " 
by  one  writer,  and  "  bears  "  by  another ;    and  there  is  contro- 


"92  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

versy  among  some  authors  as  to  whether  a  certain  figure  is  a 
fox,  or  a  panther,  while  there  has  been  much  discussion  m 
attempting  to  determine  whether  another  figure  is  a  cross  or  a 
bird.  Many,  if  not  all,  the  so-called  human  effigies  are  probably 
efforts  at  imitating  the  shape  of  some  bird  with  extended  wings 
and  a  forked  tail.  This  is  the  easiest  way  in  which  to  account 
for  the  disproportionate  length  of  the  "  arms." 

Peet  says  "There  were,  to  be  sure,  many  mistakes  made  by  Dr. 
Lapham,  especially  in  his  identifications,  as  he  seemed  to  lack  the  faculty 
of  imagination,  or  some  other  quality,  which  should  have  enabled  him 
to  trace  the  resemblances  in  the  right  direction."  —  Amer.  Antiq., 
May,  1884. 

As  an  example  of  this  "  imagination,"  there  is  one  mound 
which  has  been  called  a  mastodon  by  some  and  a  raccoon  by 
others.  The  trouble  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  two  parties 
are  not  able  to  agree  on  the  question  of  which  end  of  the  animal 
has  the  head.  The  trunk  of  the  mastodon  to  one,  is  the  tail 
of  the  "  'coon  "  to  the  other. 

Peet  gave  a  figure  of  the  effigy;  the  reader  may  decide. — 
Amer.  Antiq.,  XI,  May,  1889. 

jj;  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

Many  unreasonable  inferences  are  drawn  from  aboriginal 
workings  in  the  copper  region.  No  greater  skill  was  required 
in  mining  copper  than  in  quarrying  flint;  it  had  to  be  dug  out 
of  the  ground  in  a  similar  manner.  Nevertheless,  the  following 
quotation  from  McLean  fairly  conveys  the  idea  held  by  a  large 
number  of  writers,  that  a  high  degree  of  knowledge  and  un- 
usual  enterprise   was   necessary   for   such   operations. 

"  When  we  remember  the  extreme  extent  of  the  country  traced  to 
obtain  mica  and  copper,  added  to  the  earthworks  of  Ohio,  and  other 
States,  and  when  we  remember  how  extensively  these  operations  were 
carried  on,  the  Mound  Builders  must  appear  to  us  to  have  been  a  great 
and  mighty  nation."  —  McLean,   88. 

Foster  and  Whittlesey  seem  to  think  the  entire  journey 
from  the  Scioto  to  the  mines  had  to  be  made  in  canoes,  and 
all  provisions  carried  from  the  starting  point. 

"  To  penetrate  that  distant  region  from  the  Ohio  Valley,  involved  on 
the  part  of  the  Mound  Builders,  a  voyage  of  a  thousand  miles.  The  pas- 
sage to  and  fro  was  made  in  the  Summer  season,  for  there  is  no  evidence, 
such  as  mounds,  village  plots,  or  house  foundations,  to  indicate  perma- 
nent occupancy.     The  climate  is  too  hyperborean  to  admit  of  the  maturing 


Copper.  9a 

of  maize,  and  hence  they  must  have  had  a  well  organized  commissariat, 
with  no  interruption  in  their  lines  of  communication."  —  Foster,  269. 

"  As  yet  no  remains  of  cities,  graves,  domicils,  or  highways  have 
been  found  in  the  copper  regions.  [The  miners]  probably  had  better 
means  of  transportation  than  the  bark  canoe.  They  might  thus  carry 
provisions  a  great  distance  by  water,  [and]  could  readily  bring  with  them 
in  the  spring  supplies  for  three  months,  and  before  these  were  exhausted 
the  same  craft  might  return  for  additional  supplies."  —  Whittlesey, 
Copper,  179. 

As  to  the  question  of  food,  the  later  Indians  find  no  serious 
difficulty  in  living  upon  the  natural  products  of  the  country, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  ancient  miner  may  not  have  done 
as  well. 

Except  those  on  Isle  Royale,  all  the  copper  deposits  worked 
by  the  aborigines  could  be  reached  without  crossing  any  large 
body  of  water.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  Mound  Builders 
of  southern  Ohio  ever  did  any  mining  work  whatever  in  that 
country.  The  small  amount  of  copper  exhumed  from  mounds 
does  not  justify  the  supposition  that  the  raw  material  was  dug 
out  by  people  living  where  the  finished  articles  are  found.  If 
they  had  made  such  a  tedious  journey,  they  would  have  procured 
a  greater  supply.  It  is  more  probable  that  what  they  used  was 
obtained  by  exchange. 

"  Near  Racine,  there  have  been  at  least  one  hundred  mounds  either 
opened  or  entirely  removed  concerning  fifty  of  which  I  have  personal 
knowledge,  and  not  one  single  specimen  of  copper  has  been  discovered 
in  these  mounds  and  as  this  group  is  of  the  oldest  type,  and  as  they  are 
situated  in  the  region  of  abundance  of  copper,  the  fact  leads  to  the  infer- 
ence that  they  were  built  before  copper  became  of  common  use  among  the 
Indians.  This  is  the  more  likely  as  the  later  mounds  have  not  infre- 
quently articles  manufactured  from  native  copper.  The  conclusion  fol- 
lows that  the  Indians  living  at  no  great  distance  from  the  copper  regions 
of  Lake  Superior  did  mine  copper  and  make  various  ornaments  and  im- 
plements, not  only  for  their  own  use,  but  extensively  for  the  purpose  of 
barter  with  distant  tribes  and  nations  of  Indians."  —  Hoy,   13. 

A  person  unfamiliar  with  the  facts  would  infer  from  state- 
ments like  that  in  the  next  citation,  that  copper  is  found  in  the 
mounds  in  vast  quantities.  Such  is  not  the  case.  It  seems  to 
have  held  the  same  rank  in  the  estimation  of  the  Mound  Builder 
that  gold  holds  with  us.  It  can  not  be  far  out  of  the  way  to 
say  that  for  one  copper  article  found  in  our  mounds,  fifty  are 
found  in  Wisconsin  or  Michigan. 


"94  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  facts  we  are  assured  that 

"  One  of  the  best  evidences  which  we  have  of  the  systematic  govern- 
ment and  habits  of  the  Mound  Builders,  together  with  the  comparatively 
advanced  state  of  the  practical  arts  among  them,  is  found  in  the  ancient 
copper  mines  of  the  Lake  Superior  region.  *  *  The  labor  involved  in 
a  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  from  the  Ohio  Valley  to  the  copper 
regions,  the  toil  of  the  summer's  mining,  and  the  tedious  transportation 
of  the  metal  to  their  homes  upon  their  backs,  and  by  means  of  an  imper- 
fect system  of  navigation,  indicates  either  industry  and  resolution  such  as 
no  savage  Indian  ever  possessed,  or  a  condition  of  servitude  in  which 
thousands  occupied  a  condition  of  abject  slavery.  No  permanent  abodes 
were  erected  by  the  miners  in  this  region,  no  mounds  were  constructed, 
but  the  indications  all  point  to  a  summer's  residence  only  and  a  return 
to  the  south  with  the  accumulation  of  their  toil  when  the  severities  of 
winter  approached."  —  Short,  89  and  93. 

Further  reference  to  copper  mining  and  working  will  be 
found  in  the  concluding  pages. 

^  5}C  JjC  >Ji  5i< 

The  association  in  mounds  of  manufactured  articles  made 
of  material  from  foreign  localities,  has  caused  much  perplexity, 
and  is  responsible  for  some  very  erroneous  conclusions.  It  will 
be  sufficient  to  repeat  here  the  remarks  of  Squier  and  Davis, 
which  embody  the  substance  of  all  that  has  been  said  upon  this 
phase  of  the  matter  since  their  time. 

"  It  cannot,  however,  have  escaped  notice,  that  the  relics  found  in 
the  mounds, —  composed  of  materials  peculiar  to  places  separated  as 
widely  as  the  ranges  of  the  Alleghanies  on  the  east,  and  the  Sierras  of 
Mexico  on  the  west,  the  waters  of  the  great  lakes  on  the  north,  and 
those  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south, —  denote  the  contemporaneous 
existence  of  communication  between  these  extremes.  For  we  find  side 
by  side  in  the  same  mounds,  native  copper  from  Lake  Superior,  mica 
from  the  Alleghanies,  shells  from  the  Gulf,  and  obsidian  (perhaps  por- 
phyry) from  Mexico.  This  fact  seems  seriously  to  conflict  with  the 
hypothesis  of  a  migration,  either  northward  or  southward."  —  S.  &  D.,  306. 

The  final  sentence  means,  at  least  it  is  generally  under- 
stood to  mean,  that  in  the  opinion  of  these  authors  the  Mound 
Builders  held  control  of  all  the  area  included  within  the  limits 
of  the  localities  mentioned,  and  performed  the  labor  necessary 
for  securing  the  material  which  they  afterward  wrought  into 
the  various  forms  in  which  it  is  now  to  be  found.  But  the  facts 
noted  do  not  warrant  this  assumption.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  localized  types,  artificial  objects  of  nearly  every  sort  are 
found  in  greatest  abundance  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  natural 


iboriQ-inal  Trade.  95 


".^ 


■deposits  of  raw  material,  gradually  diminishing  in  numbers 
toward  distant  points.  If  persons  who  were  at  the  necessity  of 
making  long  journeys  to  reach  the  source  of  supply,  carried 
on  for  themselves  the  mining  or  quarrying  operations,  they  would 
have  transported  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  product  which  could  be 
utilized,  to  their  homes,  where  it  could  be  worked  into  shape  at 
the  leisure  or  convenience  of  the  owners.  They  certainly  would 
not  have  been  at  the  trouble  to  complete,  and  then  abandon,  the 
great  number  of  implenments  found  remote  from  their  habita- 
tions. 

Indian  traders  traveled  extensively  in  the  exchange  of 
wares.  Articles  of  barter  were  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  from 
tribe  to  tribe,  over  large  areas  and  through  long  periods  of 
time.     The  Atlantic  coast  Indians 

"did  more  or  less  barter,  especially  in  pipes,  the  material  for 
which,  a  red  marble,  is  rare,  and  found  only  on  the  Mississippi.  A  more 
common  sort  is  made  of  a  kind  of  ruddle  dug  up  by  the  Indians  living  to 
the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  on  the  Marble  River,  who  sometimes  bring 
it  to  these  countries  for  sale."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  522 ;  from  Loskiel's  "Mis- 
sions." 

"  It  has  been  found  that  articles  from  the  shores  of  the  Caspian 
may  reach  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  *  *  in  about  three  years  by 
barter."  — Nadaillac,   173. 

"x\t  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  southwestern  Indians  had 
great  numbers  of  horses  which  they  acquired  from  the  Spaniards  or 
nations  immediately  bordering  on  New  Mexico.  These  animals  are 
chiefly  transferred  to  the  nations  northeast  of  the  [Missouri]  River  *  * 
in  exchange  for  articles  procured  from  the  British  traders."  The  Crows 
made  annual  exchanges  of  goods  with  the  Minnatarees  and  others  to 
the  eastward,  obtaining  European  goods  which  they  used,  in  part,  in 
trading  with  Snakes  to  the  west.  "Iridescent  shells  from  the  Gulf  of 
California  found  their  way  to  Zuni  through  Sonora  and  the  Colorado 
people.  An  Indian  in  the  employ  of  the  first  President  of  Mexico  had 
made  two  trips  to  Zuni."  Many  other  instances  are  given  of  individual 
traders  making  long  journeys,  or  of  tribes  acting  as  middlemen  between 
other  tribes  remote  from  each  other,  everywhere  east  of  the  Mississippi. 
—  Mason,  Travel,  587,  ef.  seq. 

Hunting  and  war  parties  wandered  great  distances  from 
home. 

"The  Delawares  [at  Fort  Leavenworth,  in  1846]  make  war  upon 
remote  tribes  *  *  *  sending  out  their  war-parties  as  far  as  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  into  the  Mexican  territories."  —  Oregon  Trail,  19. 

"  In  my  travels  in  the  Upper  Missouri,  and  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
I   learned  to  my  utter   astonishment,    that   little  parties   of  these  adven- 


96  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

turous  myrmidons  [Delawares] ,  of  only  six  or  eight  in  numbers,  had 
visited  these  remote  tribes,  at  2,000  miles  distance;  and  in  several  in- 
stances, after  having  cajoled  a  whole  tribe  *  *  *  may  have  brought 
away  six  or  eight  scalps  with  them ;  and  nevertheless  *  *  *  retreated 
with  safety  out  of  their  enemies'  country,  and  through  the  regions  of 
other  hostile  tribes,  where  they  managed  to  *  *  *  come  off  with 
similar  trophies."  —  Catlin,   Indians^    II,    102. 

"Charlevoix,  in  his  history  of  Canada,  has  stated  what  Father 
Grillon  often  informed  him  of,  namely,  that  after  having  labored  some 
time  in  the  missions  of  Canada,  he  returned  to  France  and  went  to 
China.  As  he  was  traveling  through  Tartary,  he  met  a  Huron  woman 
whom  he  had  formerly  known  in  Canada.  She  told  him,  that  having 
been  taken  in  war,  she  had  been  conducted  from  nation  to  nation,  until 
she  arrived  at  the  place  where  she  then  was.  There  was  another  mis- 
sionary, said  Charlevoix,  passing  by  the  way  of  Nantz,  on  his  return 
from  China,  who  related  the  like  story,  of  a  woman  he  had  seen  from 
Florida  in  America.  She  informed  him  that  she  had  been  taken  and 
given  to  those  of  a  distant  country,  and  by  them  again  to  another  nation, 
till  she  had  been  thus  successively  passed  from  country  to  country,  had 
traveled  regions  excessively  cold,  and  at  length  found  herself  in  Tartary, 
and  had  there  married  a  Tartar,  who  had  passed  with  the  conquerors 
into  China,  and  had  there  settled."  —  Haywood,  271. 

The  history  and  traditions  of  nearly  all  tribes  show  them 
continually  migrating.  In  all  these  ways  small  objects  could  wan- 
der hundreds  or  thousands  of  miles  from  their  starting  point. 
By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  European  goods  had  been 
carried  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  coasts,  along  different  lines 
from  any  pursued  by  the  earlier  explorers ;  undoubtedly  a  simi- 
lar trafhc  prevailed  in  prehistoric  times.  Thus  may  be  explained 
the  occurrence  of  one  or  two  specimens  far  from  a  locality  where 
that  particular  type  prevails;  as,  to  take  a  single  case,  the  dis- 
covery in  eastern  Massachusetts  of  some  "monitor  pipes"  which 
are  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  Ohio  district. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  permanent  remains 
which  indicate  that  colonies  or  clans  separated  from  the  main 
body  of  their  people  and  established  themselves  in  a  new  coun- 
try. The  huge  pyramids  opposite  St.  Louis  are  distinctly  south- 
ern in  type ;  and  no  others  of  this  size  and  form  are  found  north 
of  the  Ohio  except  at  one  point. 

"On  Angel's  farm,  situated  six  miles  southeast  of  Evansville,  I 
found  six  mounds,  four  distinct  cemeteries,  three  lines  of  earthworks, 
one  large  stone  cist,  and  one  altar.  The  first  and  most  western  mound 
is  15  feet  high,  585  feet  in  circumference,  truncated  and  100  feet  across 
the  top.     The  second  mound  is  8  feet  high  and  150  feet  in  circumference. 


Evansville,  Indiana  —  Aztalan,  Wisconsin.  97 

The  cist  was  8  feet  long,  4  feet  wide,  4  feet  deep,  walled  with  slate 
[shale].  In  this  were  found  several  skeletons.  A  third  mound  is  twenty- 
feet  high,  402  feet  in  circumference,  truncated,  and  60  feet  across  the 
top.  The  altar  was  a  pit  with  a  floor  and  a  roof  of  sand  rock,  the  sides 
and  ends  lined  with  slate  slabs.  Inside  it  was  three  feet  long,  two  feet 
wide,  and  fourteen  inches  deep.  It  contained  the  remains  of  a  cremated 
body  or  skeleton.  The  fourth  mound  is  150  feet  in  circumference,  and 
5  feet  high.  The  fifth  mound  is  square,  100  yards  on  every  side,  and  45 
feet  high  to  a  plateau,  the  width  of  which  is  185  feet.  On  top  of  this 
there  is  an  additional  mound,  15  feet  high.  Then  at  the  west  end  there 
was  an  elevated  platform  4  feet  high,  150  yards  long,  55  feet  wide. 
The  last  mound  is  10  feet  high,  30  yards  in  circumference.  Around  these 
six  mounds  is  a  line  of  earthwork,  resting  at  either  end  on  the  river 
bank,  and  inside  of  this  are  two  other  short  ones.  The  outer  line  is 
about  one  mile  in  length,  and  about  every  forty  yards  there  are  mound- 
like widenings  on  the  outer  edges.  One-half  mile  northeast  of  these 
mounds  is  a  mound  50  feet  high  and  164  yards  in  circumference.  All  of 
the  graves  in  this  section  are  walled  with  slate."  —  Stinson,  591,  et  seq., 
condensed. 

If  the  above  description  is  correct  —  and  we  have  no  reason 
to  doubt  it  —  the  Evansville  group,  in  its  situation  and  construc- 
tion bears  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  one  on  the  Etowah 
River  near  Cartersville,  Georgia.  The  "mound-like  widenings 
on  the  outer  edges  "  of  the  wall  do  not  appear  in  the  latter  works ; 
and  so  far  as  known  are  not  to  be  observed  at  any  other  point 
except  in  Wisconsin.  This  is  at  the  so-called  "Aztalan,"  where 
the  mounds  associated  with  the  walls  are  quite  small.  Because 
of  its  fanciful  name,  and  of  the  marvelous  stories  which  have 
gone  the  rounds  of  newspapers  about  "brick  w^alls,"  "stone 
arches"  arid  other  unusual  features,  many  persons  suppose 
"Aztalan"  was  once  the  abode  of  a  tribe  or  colony  from  Mexico. 
In  order  to  show  its  true  character,  a  tolerably  full  description 
is  appended. 

"It  is  the  only  ancient  enclosure,  properly  so  called  in  Wisconsin; 
and  although  it  is  usually  termed  a  fort  or  citadel,  it  will  be  shown  here- 
after that  it  falls  more  properly  into  the  class  denominated  '  sacred  in- 
closures.'  Without  this  we  might  be  led  to  suppose  that  the  ancient 
Mound  Builders  of  Wisconsin  were  a  distinct  people  from  those  of  Ohio, 
so  different  is  the  general  character  of  their  monuments. 

"The  'ancient  city  of  Aztalan'  has  long  been  known,  and  often 
referred  to,  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  western  world.  Many  exag- 
gerated statements  respecting  the  'brick  walls'  supported  by  buttresses, 
the  '  stone  arch ',  etc.,  have  been  made ;  for  all  of  which  there  is  little 
foundation  in  truth." 
7 


98  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"The  name  Aztalan  was  given  to  the  place  by  Mr.  Hyer  [the  dis- 
coverer of  the  ruins],  because,  according  to  Humboldt,  the  Aztecs,  or 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Mexico,  had  a  tradition  that  their  ancestors  came 
from  a  country  at  the  north,  which  they  called  Aztalan;  and  the  pos- 
sibility that  these  may  have  been  the  remains  of  their  occupancy,  sug- 
gested the  idea  of  restoring  the  name. 

"  The  main  feature  of  these  remains  is  the  enclosure  or  ridge  of 
earth  (not  brick,  as  has  been  erroneously  stated),  extending  around  three 
sides  of  an  irregular  parallelogram;  the  west  branch  of  Rock  River 
forming  the  fourth  side  on  the  east.  The  space  thus  enclosed  is  seven- 
teen acres  and  two-thirds.  The  corners  are  not  rectangular ;  and  the 
embankment  or  ridge  is  not  straight.  The  earth  of  which  the  ridge  is 
made  was  evidently  taken  from  the  nearest  ground,  where  there  are 
numerous  excavations  of  very  irregular  form  and  depth.  If  we  allow  for 
difference  of  exposure  of  earth  thrown  up  into  a  ridge  and  that  lying  on 
the  original  flat  surface,  we  can  perceive  no  difference  between  the  soil 
composing  the  ridge  and  that  found  along  its  sides.  Both  consist  of  a 
light  yellowish  sandy  loam. 

"The  ridge  forming  the  enclosure  is  631  feet  long  at  the  north  end, 
1,419  feet  long  on  the  west  side,  and  700  feet  on  the  south  side,  making 
a  total  length  of  wall  of  2,750  feet.  The  ridge  or  wall  is  about  22  feet 
wide,  and  from  one  foot  to  five  in  height. 

"The  wall  of  earth  is  enlarged  on  the  outside,  at  nearly  equal  dis- 
tances, by  mounds  of  the  same  material.  They  are  called  buttresses  or 
bastions;  but  it  is  quite  clear  that  they  were  never  designed  for  either 
of  the  purposes  designated  by  these  names.  The  distance  from  one  to 
another  varies  from  sixty-one  to  ninety-five  feet,  scarcely  any  two  of 
them  being  alike.  Their  mean  distance  apart  is  eighty-two  feet.  They 
are  about  forty  feet  in  diameter,  and  from  two  to  five  feet  high.  On  the 
north  wall,  and  on  most  of  the  west  wall,  they  have  the  same  height 
as  the  connecting  ridge;  but  on  the  south  wall,  and  the  southern  portion 
of  the  west  wall,  they  are  higher  than  the  ridge,  and  at  a  little  distance 
resemble  a  simple  row  of  mounds.  On  the  inner  side  of  the  wall,  opposite 
many  of  these  mounds,  is  a  slight  depression  or  sinus,  possibly  the 
remains  of  a  sloping  way  by  which  the  wall  was  ascended  from  within 
the  enclosures.  The  two  outworks,  near  the  southwest  angle  of  the 
great  enclosure  [these  are  short  walls,  one  straight,  the  other  having 
an  angle,  and  both  set  diagonally  to  the  lines  of  the  main  structure], 
are  constructed  in  the  same  manner ;  but  both  these  mounds  and  the 
connecting  ridge  are  of  smaller  dimensions.  When  viewed  from  the  road, 
a  short  distance  west,  these  outworks  would  be  supposed  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  few  circular  mounds. 

"  On  opening  the  walls  near  the  top,  it  is  occasionally  found  that  the 
earth  has  been  burned.  Irregular  masses  of  hard,  reddish  clay,  full  of 
cavities,  bear  distinct  impressions  of  straw,  or  rather  wild  hay,  with 
which  they  have  been  mixed  before  burning.  These  places  are  of  no  very 
considerable  extent,  nor  are  they  more  than  six  inches  in  depth.  Frag- 
ments of  the  same  kind  are  found  scattered  about ;  and  they  have  been 


Aztalan,  Wisconsin.  99 

•observed  in  other  localities  at  a  great  distance  from  these  ancient  ruins. 
This  is  the  only  foundation  for  calling  these  '  brick  walls '.  The  '  bricks ' 
were  never  made  into  any  regular  form,  and  it  is  even  doubtful  whether 
the  burning  did  not  take  place  in  the  wall  after  it  was  built.  The  im- 
pression of  the  grass  is  sometimes  so  distinct  as  to  show  its  minute 
structure,  and  also  that  it  was  of  the  angular  stems  and  leaves  of  the 
species  of  carex,  still  growing  abundantly  along  the  margin  of  the  river. 
As  indicating  the  probable  origin  of  this  burned  clay,  it  is  important  to 
state,  that  it  is  usually  mixed  with  pieces  of  charcoal,  partially  burned 
bones,  etc.  Fragments  of  pottery  are  also  found  in  the  same  connection. 
The  walls  and  mounds  are  of  a  light  colored  clay,  which  becomes  red 
on  being  slightly  burned.  From  all  the  facts  observed,  it  is  likely  that 
clay  was  mixed  with  the  straw,  and  made  into  some  coarse  kind  of  envelope 
■or  covering,  for  sacrifices  about  to  be  consumed.  The  whole  was  then 
probably  placed  on  the  wall  of  earth,  mixed  with  the  requisite  fuel  and 
burned.  The  promiscuous  mixture  of  charcoal,  burned  clay,  charred 
bones,  blackened  pottery,  etc.,  can  only  in  this  way  be  satisfactorily 
:accounted  for. 

"A  shaft  was  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  one  of  the  large  mounds  pro- 
jecting from  the  wall.  No  burned  clay  was  on  this  mound,  and  we  soon 
discovered  that  it  is  only  in  a  few  places  that  this  substance  exists.  The 
earth  was  here  a  yellowish  sandy  loam,  entirely  free  from  spots  of  black 
mould ;  thus  showing  that  it  was  built  exclusively  from  the  subsoil  of  the 
adjacent  grounds.  The  builders  had  carefully  removed  the  black  soil  be- 
fore they  commenced  the  erection  of  this  mound. 

"The  mound  at  the  northwest  angle  was  also  excavated.  At  some 
distance  below  the  top,  was  a  cavity  which  was  nearly  filled  with  loose 
earth,  in  which  were  indications  of  bones  very  much  decayed  and  char- 
coal. This  was  divided  below  into  two  other  cylindrical  cavities,  ex- 
tending beneath  the  original  surface  of  the  ground,  and  filled  with  the 
^ame  loose  materials.  This  indicates  that  when  the- mound  was  partially 
completed,  two  bodies  had  been  inhumed  in  a  sitting  posture,  close  to- 
gether; another  body  was  placed  above  these  two;  and  the  mound  carried 
above  all. 

"  At  the  western  angle  of  the  main  enclosure  are  two  truncated 
pyramidal  mounds,  one  measuring  about  53  feet  square  at  the  top,  the  other 
about  60  by  65  feet.  From  the  summit  of  one,  on  the  highest  ground 
inside  the  wall,  the  whole  works,  and  quite  an  extent  of  the  surrounding 
country  can  be  seen;  while  the  other  rises  but  little,  if  any,  above  the 
top  of  the  adjacent  wall." 

"A  few  stones  left  along  the  sides  and  bottom  of  a  small  ravine  cut 
into  the  bank  by  the  passage  of  water  to  the  river  [said  stones  being  in 
their  natural,  undisturbed,  position]  is  all  the  evidence  that  could  be 
found  of  an  ancient  sewer  'arched  with  stone.'  It  is  quite  clear  that  no 
such  arch  ever  existed. 

"It  is  not  possible  that  this  enclosure  could  have  been  a  work  of 
defence ;  for  it  is  entirely  commanded  from  the  summit  of  a  ridge  ex- 
tending along  the  west  side,  nearly  parallel  with,  and  much  higher  than 


100  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  west  walls  themselves,  and  within  a  fair  arrow-shot;  so  that  an 
enemy  posted  on  it  would  have  a  decided  advantage  over  those  within  the 
defences.  This  ridge  would  also  constitute  an  excellent  breastwork  to 
protect  an  enemy  from  the  arrows  or  other  weapons  shot  from  the  sup- 
posed fort.  From  the  summit  of  this  ridge  the  ground  descends  towards 
the  river;  so  that  the  enclosure  is  on  a  declivity,  and  is  thus  commanded 
from  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  whence  arrows  or  other  weapons 
could  be  thrown  directly  into  the  fort  by  persons  lying  in  perfect  security. 
There  is  no  guarded  opening,  or  gateway,  into  the  enclosure.  It  can  only 
be  entered  by  water,  or  by  climbing  over  the  walls. 

"  We  may  suppose  it  to  have  been  a  place  of  worship ;  the  pyramidal 
mounds  being  the  places  of  sacrifice  like  the  teocalli  of  Mexico.  From 
its  isolated  situation  —  there  being  no  other  similar  structure  for  a  great 
distance  in  any  direction  —  we  may  conjecture  that  this  was  a  kind  of 
Mecca,  to  which  a  periodical  pilgrimage  was  prescribed  by  their  religion. 
Here  may  have  been  the  great  annual  feasts  and  sacrifices  of  a  whole 
nation.  Thousands  of  persons  from  remote  locations  may  have  engaged 
in  midnight  ceremonies  conducted  by  the  priests.  The  temple,  lighted 
by  great  fires  kindled  on  the  great  pyramids  and  at  every  projection  on 
the  walls,  on  such  occasions  would  have  presented  an  imposing  spectacle, 
well  calculated  to  impress  the  minds  of  the  people  with  awe  and  solem- 
nity."—  Lapham,   41-49  condensed. 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  Lapham's  description  is  pure 
fancy.  Such  pilgrimages  and  devotions  as  he  suggests  were  un- 
known to  any  race  of  the  United  States.  The  place  seems  to  have 
been  an  ordinary  Indian  village,  whose  inhabitants  were  in  no 
great  danger  from  enemies.  The  masses  of  burned  clay  mixed 
with  reeds  and  grasses  are  very  common  in  some  parts  of  the 
south.  So  far  from  being  remains  of  sacrifices  or  intentionally 
burned  for  any  other  purpose,  they  are  simply  the  walls  and  roofs 
of  mud-plastered  huts  which  have  been  destroyed  by  fire.  Catlin 
describes  similar  huts  constructed  by  Mandans.  The  object  of  the 
vegetable  substance  is  to  hold  the  clay  in  place^as  hair  is  mixed 
with  mortar  by  modern  plasterers.     (See,  also,  pages  460-1). 

It  would  not  be  safe  to  affirm  or  deny  a  connection  between 
the  builders  of  the  Evansville  works  and  the  southern  Indians 
merely  because  of  the  resemblance  of  the  works  in  the  two  sec- 
tions; nor  between  the  former  and  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
"  Aztalan  "  by  reason  of  the  projections  on  the  embankments. 
But  it  is  easier  to  believe  them  related  in  in  some  way  or  at  least 
having  some  knowledge  of  each  other,  than  to  suppose  the 
striking  similarities  are  entirely  accidental. 


Distribution  of  Types.         "    ''"    '      '  /IM. 

The  same  difficulty  confronts  us  in  the  case  of  certain  mounds 
near  Naples,  upon  the  Illinois  River,  explored  by  Henderson.  His 
description  of  their  situation,  construction  and  contents  would 
apply  equally  to  many  of  the  tumuli  in  southern  Ohio.  He  even 
found  "  effigy  pipes  "  as  perfect  in  design  and  execution  as  any 
figured  in  "  Ancient  Monuments." —  Henderson. 

A  group  of  nine  small  mounds,  a  mile  below  Davenport,  also 
yielded  a  large  quantity  of  relics  quite  similar  to  those  found  in 
the  Ohio  mounds.  Among  them  were  nine  pipes,  all  of  the  so- 
called  mound  pipe  patterns,  and  three  of  them  carved  with  effigies. 
Those  illustrated  are  of  a  similar  style  to  the  Ohio  mound  pipes, 
but  much  less  finely  finished.  In  one  of  these  mounds  the  re- 
mains were  at  least  six  feet  below  the  present  surface  which 
is  now  only  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  above  high  water;  the 
bodies  apparently  having  been  placed  in  a  pit. —  Farquharson, 
297. 

The  specimens  in  the  latter  group  may  have  been  obtained  in 
trade.  But  it  is  quite  probable  that  a  number  of  Ohio  Mound 
Builders  wandered  into  the  region  of  the  Mississippi  and  re- 
mained there.  With  the  migratory  habits  of  native  Americans, 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  single  stock  or  tribe  held  possession 
of  any  section  for  an  unlimited  time,  or  that  fertile  districts  would 
remain  unoccupied  for  a  long  period. 

GEOGRAPHICAL   LIMITATIONS   OF   TYPES. 

A  classification  by  types  and  localities  shows  that  distinctive 
classes  of  remains  are  restricted  to  well-defined  areas ;  that  is,  the 
great  enclosures  commonly  called  "  sacred  "  are  found  between 
central  Ohio  and  central  Kentucky,  from  the  panhandle  of  West 
Virginia  to  the  lower  Wabash;  the  garden  beds  are  confined  to 
Michigan  and  northern  Indiana ;  the  effigy  mounds  principally  in 
the  adjoining  portions  of  Iowa,  northern  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota ;  the  great  hilltop  fortifications  in  Ohio ;  the  pyramidal 
flat-topped  mounds  in  the  southern  States  and  as  far  up  the  two 
principal  rivers  as  St.  Louis  and  Evansville.  Very  few  of  these 
are  to  be  found  in  localities  distant  from  where  they  are  most 
common.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  abundant  evidence  that 
any  of  the  localities  named  have  been  occupied  by  two  or  perhaps 
more  different  races ;  nearly  everywhere  appear  aboriginal  re- 
mains so  diverse  from  one  another  as  to  make  it  almost  certain 


1^2"    •'     *'"^''  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

that  they  belong  to  a  different  period  of  construction  or  to  an 
unrelated  people.  Particularly  in  southern  Ohio  the  dissimilarity 
to  be  observed  in  various  remains  which  were  at  first  thrown  into 
a  single  classification  denotes  that  several  waves  of  population 
swept  over  this  region.  There  is  sufficient  diversity  between  the 
symmetrical  enclosures  of  the  bottom  lands,  the  massive  hill  forts^ 
and  the  smaller  or  irregular  embankments  found  in  the  same  sec- 
tions, to  justify  a  supposition  of  separate  builders.  So  of  the 
large  mounds,  whether  of  earth  or  stone,  when  compared  with 
some  of  the  smaller  mounds  of  either  material  alone  or  of  both 
combined ;  while  the  stone  graves  or  cairns  fall  m  a  class  to  them- 
selves. 

A  "  Catalogue  of  Prehistoric  Works  East  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  ",  was  issued  some  years  ago  by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnol- 
ogy, as  Bulletin  No.  12  of  their  publications.  It  gives  a  map  of 
each  state,  and  attempts  to  show  by  means  of  ''  symbols  "  the 
number  and  character  of  the  various  remains  wdthin  its  borders. 
At  the  best,  such  a  work  must  be  very  incomplete ;  but  in  addi- 
tion, these  maps  are  sadly  misleading,  and  no  comparison  based  on 
them  should  be  attempted  between  the  remains  of  different  states 
or  even  between  different  parts  of  the  same  state.  Owing  to  the 
small  size  of  the  page,  the  method  of  "  symbolizing  "  renders  it 
impossible  to  represent  more  than  one  mound  or  enclosure  within 
an  area  of  several  square  miles,  and  some  are  placed  ten  miles  or 
more  from  their  proper  position.  A  mound  which  would  scarcely 
be  noticed  while  walking  over  it,  is  given  the  same  prominence  as 
one  fifty  feet  high  ;  and  a  group  like  that  at  Hopewell's  or  "  Mound 
City "  is  not  differentiated  from  three  or  four  sand  dunes  in 
Michigan  utilized  by  modern  Indians  as  burial  places. 

Although  it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Ohio  archae- 
ology, it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  introduce  here  an  abstract 
of  Lewis  and  Clark's  description  of  an  earthwork  on  the  upper 
Missouri,  a  few  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Yankton,  both  as 
a  matter  of  general  interest  and  for  purposes  of  comparison. 

"This  interesting  object  is  on  the  south  side  of  the  Missouri,  oppo- 
site the  upper  extremity  of  Bonhomme  Island,  and  in  a  low  level  plain, 
the  hills  being  three  miles  from  the  river.  It  begins  by  a  low  wall  com- 
posed of  earth,  rising  immediately  from  the  bank  of  the  river  and  run- 
ning in  a  direct  course  S.  76°  W.  ninety-six  yards  ;  the  base  of  this  wall 
or  mound  is  seventy-five  feet,  and  its  height  about  eight.  It  then  diverges 
in  a  course  S.  84°  W.  and  continues  at  the  same  height  and  depth  to  the 


IVork  on  Upper  Missouri  River.  103 

distance  of  fifty-three  yards,  the  angle  being  formed  by  the  sloping  des- 
cent; at  the  junction  of  these  two  is  an  appearance  of  a  hornwork  of  the 
same  height  with  the  first  angle ;  the  same  wall  then  pursues  a  course 
N.  69°  W.  for  three  hundred  yards ;  near  its  western  extremity  is  an 
opening  or  gateway  at  right  angles  to  the  wall,  and  projecting  inwards; 
this  gateway  is  defended  by  two  nearly  semi-circular  walls  placed  before 
it,  lower  than  the  large  walls ;  and  from  the  gateway  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  covered  way  communicating  with  the  interval  between  these  two 
walls;  westward  of  the  gate,  the  wall  becomes  much  larger,  being  about 
one  hundred  and  five  feet  at  its  base,  and  twelve  feet  high ;  at  the  end 
of  this  high  ground  the  wall  extends  for  fifty-six  yards  on  a  course  N. 
32°  W. ;  it  then  turns  N.  23°  W.  for  seventy-three  yards;  these  two  walls 
seem  to  have  had  a  double  or  covered  way;  they  are  from  ten  to  fifteen 
feet  eight  inches  in  height,  and  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  five 
feet  in  width  at  the  base ;  the  descent  inwards  being  steep,  whilst  outwards 
it  forms  a  sort  of  glacis.  At  the  distance  of  seventy-three  yards,  the 
wall  ends  abruptly  at  a  large  hollow  place  much  lower  than  the  general 
level  of  the  plain,  and  from  which  is  some  indication  of  a  covered  way  to 
the  water.  The  space  between  them  is  occupied  by  several  mounds  scat- 
tered promiscuously  through  the  gorge,  in  the  center  of  which  is  a  deep 
round  hole.  From  the  extremity  of  the  last  wall,  in  a  course  N.  32" 
W.  is  a  distance  of  seventy-six  yards  over  the  low  ground,  w^here  the 
wall  recommences  and  crosses  the  plain  in  a  course  N.  84°  W.  for  eighteen 
hundred  and  thirty  yards  to  the  bank  of  the  Missouri.  In  this  course  its 
height  is  about  eight  feet,  till  it  enters,  at  the  distance  of  five  hundred  and 
thirty-three  yards,  a  deep  circular  pond  of  seventy-three  yards'  diameter; 
after  which  it  is  gradually  lower,  towards  the  river;  it  touches  the  river 
at  a  muddy  bar,  which  bears  every  mark  of  being  an  encroachment  of  the 
water,  for  a  considerable  distance;  and  a  little  above  the  junction  is  a 
small  circular  redoubt.  Along  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  at  eleven  hun- 
dred yards  distance,  in  a  straight  line  [down  the  stream]  from  this  wall, 
is  a  second,  about  six  feet  high,  and  of  considerable  width;  it  rises 
abruptly  from  the  bank  of  the  Missouri,  at  a  point  where  the  river  bends, 
and  goes  straight  forward,  forming  an  acute  angle  with  the  last  wall 
[it  is,  in  fact,  nearly  parallel  with  it]  till  it  enters  the  river  again,  not  far 
from  the  mound  just  described,  towards  which  it  is  obviously  tending." 
"Where  the  river  passes  betw^een  this  fort  and  Bonhomme  Island, 
all  the  distance  from  the  bend,  it  is  constantly  washing  the  banks  into 
the  stream,  a  large  sandbank  being  already  taken  from  the  shore  near  the 
wall.  During  the  whole  course  of  this  wall,  or  glacis,  it  is  covered  with 
trees,  among  which  are  many  large  cotton  trees,  two  or  three  feet  in 
diameter.  Immediately  opposite  the  citadel,  or  the  part  most  strongly 
fortified,  on  Bonhomme  Island,  is  a  small  work  in  a  circular  form,  with 
a  wall  surrounding  it,  about  six  feet  in  height.  *  *  *  'pj^g  citadel 
contains  about  twenty  acres,  but  the  parts  between  the  long  walls  must 
embrace  nearly  five  hundred  acres."  —  L.  &  C,  I.,  63,  et  seq. 


104  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

As  this  description  may  not  be  perfectly  clear  in  the  absence 
of  any  illustrations,  it  may  here  be  added  that  the  work  in  question 
cuts  off  a  short  bend  in  the  Missouri.  The  curving  or  irregular 
wall  first  mentioned,  starts  out  below  the  bend  almost  at  a  right 
angle  with  the  river  bank,  and  at  its  termination  is  again  approach- 
ing the  river.  The  long  straight  wall,  beginning  here,  reaches 
the  river  at  a  considerable  distance  above  the  turn;  while  the 
second  straight  wall  described,  begins  almost  at  the  angle  of 
the  bend  and  follows  the  direction  of  the  current,  close  to  the 
bank,  and  terminates  just  where  the  channel  begins  to  take  a 
straight  course  to  the  eastward.  It  is  possible  that,  as  originally 
constructed,  it  was  carried  onward  until  it  joined  the  curved  wall 
below ;  and  it  is  also  possible  that  a  third  straight  wall  connected 
these  two  at  the  upper  portion  of  the  area  surrounded,  these 
portions  having  been  carried  away  by  encroachments  of  the 
stream.  It  is  at  least  evident  that  the  walls  have  been  shortened  to 
some  extent,  for  they  are  broken  off  abruptly,  presenting  the  same 
general  slope  at  the  ends  as  that  of  the  banks  where  they  ter- 
minate. 

There  is  no  mention  in  the  text,  and  no  indication  in  the 
figure,  of  a  ditch  either  within  or  without  the  embankments ;  so 
the  heights  given  must  be  from  the  ordinary  surface  level. 

There  is  nothing  in  Ohio  approaching  these  remains  in  mag- 
nitude, except,  perhaps,  the  works  at  Newark;  and  if  the  sup- 
position be  correct  that  connecting  walls  have  been  undermined 
and  carried  away  by  floods,  the  entire  structure  must  have  con- 
siderably surpassed  any  group  in  our  State,  in  the  amount 
of  material  handled  during  its  construction.  If  defensive  in 
character,  a  platform  of  wood  must  have  extended  around  the 
interior  to  afford  a  standing-place  for  the  garrison,  whence  they 
could  command  the  slope  in  front. 

E.— AGE. 

One  problem  which  has  withstood  the  most  persistent  ef- 
forts toward  its  solution,  is  that  of  the  period  at  which  the  mounds 
were  constructed.  It  has  been  approached  from  every  side,  but 
so  far  the  answer  is  as  uncertain  as  at  the  beginning.  There  is 
no  lack  of  guesses,  m.any  of  them  quite  irrational;  and  all  sorts 
of  data,  some  of  which  can  have  no  possible  bearing  on  the  ques- 
tion, are  used  as  bases  for  calculation.     Trees,  geological  for- 


Antiquity  of  Mounds.  105 

mations,  mastodons,  astronomy,  are  among  the  things  which  have 
served  to  promote  discussion  and  befuddle  readers.  Centuries 
or  milleniums  are  called  into  requisition  with  a  fluency  and  free- 
dom worthy  of  philosophers  discussing  the  age  of  the  earth. 

"  They  [Mound  Builders]  occupied  all  the  forest-covered  region  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  *  *  *  foj-  many  hundreds  and  perhaps  thou- 
sands of  years.  This  is  indicated  by  the  general  occupation  of  this  wide- 
spread area,  the  magnitude  and  number  of  such  of  their  works  as  have 
resisted  the  ravages  of  time  [intimating  that  some  are  destroyed  by  the 
elements]  and  the  great  abundance  of  the  stone  implements  of  their 
manufacture  found  scattered  over  the  surface;  also  by  the  extent  of  their 
mining  operations."  —  Newberry,  P.  S.  M.,   193. 

"The  ancient  population  must  have  numbered  half  a  million,  with 
a  probability  of  a  million.  The  period  of  their  occupation  exceeded  one 
thousand  and  probably  reached  three  thousand  years."  —  Cent.  Rep.,   107. 

"  There  are  no  traces  of  Mound  Builders'  works  below  Baton  Rouge. 
[Hence]  we  may  conclude  that  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the  age  of  the 
Mound  Builders  laved  the  base  of  the  heights  on  which  Natchez  stands. 
*  *  *  Thus  the  conclusion  is  deduced  that  quite  three  thousand. years 
have  elapsed  since  the  people  known  as  the  Mound  Builders  utterly  dis- 
appeared."—  Du  Pre,  348. 

It  would  have  been  quite  as  logical  to  suppose  the  Gulf  at 
Memphis  or  Cairo,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  condition  of  the 
country  below  Baton  Rouge.  There  are  mounds  along  the  coast 
near  Mobile  on  land  formed  since  that  below  the  mound  limits  on 
the  Mississippi,  but  as  these  do  not  fit  in  with  the  idea  of  great 
antiquity  they  are  not  mentioned. 

McLean  insists  that  mounds  in  different  portions  of  the 
country  were  built  at  widely  separated  intervals. 

"It  is  pretty  well  established  that  since  the  time  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  and  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  Indian,  a  race  known  as  the  '  Vil- 
lagers '  occupied  certain  districts  of  this  country  and  made  the  '  garden- 
beds  '  found  in  northern  Indiana,  lower  Missouri,  and  in  Michigan. 
Time  must  be  allotted  for  them  to  take  possession  of  the  country ;  then 
growth  and  decadence  would  have  required  ages,  so  that  an  almost  in- 
credible period  must  have  elapsed  from  the  time  they  took  possession  of 
the  country  until  they  retired.  If  the  animal  mounds  were  made  since 
the  structures  in  Ohio,  then  another  people  lived  between  the  time  of 
the  Villagers  and  the  Mound  Builders.  Since  the  period  of  the  Villagers 
and  before  the  advent  of  the  Indians,  still  another  race  may  have  ex- 
isted."—  McLean,  131-2,  condensed. 

In  the  first  place  there  are  no  "garden  beds  in  the  lower  part 
of  Missouri."  Immense  numbers  of  small  mounds,  probably  for 
agricultural  uses,  extend  from  Pilot  Knob  in  that  State  into  and 


106  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

probably  beyond  Louisiana;  but  they  are  entirely  different  from 
the  Garden  Beds  of  the  north  in  their  situation  and  appearance. 
By  McLean's  style  of  reasoning,  we  could  carry  any  nation  back 
to  the  beginning  of  time.  He  assumes  that  only  a  restricted 
area  could  be  occupied  at  one  period ;  that  these  inhabitants 
must  become  extinct  and  ages  elapse  ere  another  people  can 
settle  a  place  a  thousand  miles  away;  and  that  all  the  races 
which  have  thus  in  turn  flourished  and  died  out  are  of  different 
stocks. 

Harrison  based  his  ideas  of  successive  populations  upon  a 
more  valid  belief;  but  he  was  mistaken  in  his  interpretation  of 
the  ''embankments"  to  which  he  refers.  Some  of  them  were 
artificial;  but  most  were  the  ordinary  irregularities  to  be 
observed  in  all  river  bottom  lands,  being  due  to  natural  causes 
operating  at  the  time  the  terraces  were  forming.  ., 

"  I  think  there  are  indubitable  marks  of  the  bank  of  the  Ohio 
being  thickly  inhabited  by  a  race  of  men,  inferior  to  the  authors  of 
the  great  works  we  have  been  considering,  after  the  departure  of  the 
latter.  Upon  many  places,  remains  of  pottery,  pipes,  stone  hatchets 
and  other  articles  are  found  in  great  abundance,  which  are  evidently 
of  inferior  workmanship  to  those  of  the  former  people.  I  have  one 
other  fact  to  offer  which  furnishes  still  better  evidence  of  my  opinion. 
When  I  first  saw  the  upper  plain  upon  which  Cincinnati  stands,  it  was 
literally  covered  with  low  lines  of  embankments.  The  number  and  variety 
of  figures  in  which  these  lines  were  drawn  was  almost  endless.  Many 
so  faint,  indeed,  as  scarcely  to  be  followed,  and  often  for  a  considerable 
distance  entirely  obliterated.  Now,  if  these  lines  were  ever  the  height 
of  the  others,  (and  they  must  have  been  to  have  answered  any  valuable 
purpose),  or  unless  their  erection  was  many  years  anterior  to  the  others, 
there  must  have  been  some  other  cause  than  the  attrition  of  the  rain  (for 
it  is  a  dead  level)  to  bring  them  down  to  their  then  state.  That  cause  I 
take  to  have  been  continued  cultivation.  And  as  the  people  who  erected 
them,  would  not  themselves  destroy  works  which  had  cost  them  so  much 
labor,  the  solution  of  the  question  can  only  be  found  in  the  long  occu- 
pancy, and  cultivation  of  another  people,  and  the  probability  is,  that  that 
people  were  the  conquerors  of  the  original  possessors."  —  Harrison, 
226-7,  condensed. 

This  ''conquering  race"  was  not  the  American  Indian  found 
here  by  the  whites,  but  had  in  turn  abandoned  the  vicinity  before 
the  latter  appeared  upon  the  scene.  This  would,  in  his  opinion, 
set  the  Mound  Builders  back  to  a  remote  age. 

All  these  estimates,  however,  are  moderate  compared  with 
some  others. 


Koch's  Mastodon.  107' 

"  One  of  the  exterior  mounds  at  Fort  Ancient  is  situated  one  or 
two  degrees  north  of  east  of  the  main  gateway.  A  similar  variation  from 
the  true  points  of  the  compass  exists,  it  is  beHeved,  in  some  of  the  similar 
works  in  the  Scioto  and  Miami  valleys,  and  also  in  Florida  and  Mexico.. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  account  for  this  variation,  if  upon  investigation, 
it  should  be  found  uniform,  unless  in  some  way  connected  with  the  ob- 
liquity of  the  ecliptic  to  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation ;  and  it  might  furnish  a 
clue  to  the  age  of  the  works,  in  view  of  the  measurable  tendency  of 
the  ecliptic,  in  the  course  of  ages,  to  coincide  with  the  plane  of  the  equator. 
It  would  require,  in  round  numbers,  nearly  eight  thousand  years  to  ac- 
count for  a  variation  of  one  degree ;  but  we  need  not  be  staggered  by 
the  results  to  which  such  a  theory  would  lead  us."  —  Hosea,  Ft.  A.,  293, 
condensed. 

As  the  present  angle  of  inclination  is  not  far  from  twenty- 
three  and  a  half  degrees,  this  theory  would  give  Fort  Ancient 
an  age  of  about  150,000  years  ;  which  is  enough  10  "  stagger" 
almost  any  one.  By  a  similar  calculation,  some  writer  whose, 
name  is  not  recalled,  proves  that  the  Newark  works  were  built 
at  the  same  time  as  one  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  and  conse- 
quently by  the  same  people. 

In  describing  the  "  sculptured  winged  monster "  which  Is  painted 
on  the  bluffs  near  Alton,  Illinois,  Larkin  says,  "Persons  who  visited  the 
Centennial  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  year  1876,  will  recollect  the  skeleton  of 
a  gigantic  bird,  whose  bony  frame  and  neck  towered  to  the  height  of 
nearly  fifteen  feet.  *  *  *  Now,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  believe  that 
such  a  bird  lived  with  the  Mound  Builders,  and  went  down  with  them, 
perhaps  when  the  whole  solar  system  was  plunged  into  an  icy  wave."  — 
Larkin,  137. 

THE    MASTODON    OR    MAMMOTH. 

Several  accounts  have  appeared  of  discoveries  tending  to 
prove  that  primitive  man  in  the  United  States  was  contempora- 
neous with  the  mastodon  or  mammoth.  Three  of  these  have 
attained  wide  circulation.  First  in  time  as  well  as  importance 
is  that  of  Dr.  Koch,  of  St.  Louis. 

'■  In  the  year  1839,  I  discovered  and  disinterred  in  Gasconade  County, 
Missouri,  the  bones  of  a  Mastodon  giganteus.  The  greater  portion  of  the 
bones  had  been  more  or  less  burned  by  fire.  The  fire  had  extended  but  a 
few  feet  beyond  the  space  occupied  by  the  animal  and  had  been  kindled 
by  human  agency  with  the  design  of  killing  the  huge  creature  which  had 
been  found  mired  in  the  mud.  The  fore  and  hind  legs  of  the  animal 
were  in  perpendicular  position  in  the  clay  with  the  toes  attached  to  the 
feet.  All  the  bones  which  had  not  been  burned  by  the  fire  had  kept  their 
original  position,  standing  upright,  and  apparently  quite  undisturbed  in 
the   clay,    whereas   those   portions   which    had    extended   above    the    sur- 


108  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

face  had  been  partially  consumed.  Mingled  with  the  ashes  and  bones 
were  many  broken  pieces  of  rock  carried  from  the  river  to  be  hurled  at 
the  animal.  I  found  also  among  the  ashes,  bones,  and  rocks,  several 
arrow-heads,  a  stone  spear-head,  and  some  stone  axes.  The  layer  of 
ashes,  etc.,  was  covered  by  a  strata  of  alluvial  deposits  from  eight  to 
nine  feet  thick.-  [Koch  afterward]  found  in  Benton  County  several  stone 
arrow-heads,  mingled  with  the  bones  of  a  nearly  entire  skeleton,  men- 
tioned above  as  the  Missourium.  Two  arrow-heads  found  with  the  bones 
were  in  a  layer  of  vegetable  mould,  which  was  covered  twenty  feet  in 
thickness  with  alternate  layers  of  sand,  clay  and  gravel.  One  of  the  ar- 
row-heads lay  under  the  thigh  bone  of  the  skeleton,  the  bone  actually 
resting  in  contact  upon  it.  The  layer  of  vegetable  mould  was  some  five 
or  six  feet  thick,  and  the  arrow-head  and  bones  were  found  buried  in  it. 
Above  this  layer  there  were  six  undisturbed  layers  of  clay,  sand  and 
gravel."  —  From  Foster,  63,  condensed. 

Koch's  statement  has  been  vigorously  attacked  by  Dana,  who 
proceeds  to  point  out  discrepancies  in  his  different  reports ;  demon- 
strates his  lack  of  training  in  observation,  his  ignorance  of  geol- 
ogy, and  his  desire  to  make  a  good  story;  doubts  whether  the 
Indians  would  have  waited  for  the  bones  to  char  through  the 
skin  and  flesh  before  they  would  begin  eating ;  and  says  "the  char- 
ring might  have  been  done  very  long  after  the  miring  and  death 
of  the  animal,  and  the  facts  be  all  as  they  are  reported.'' — (Dana). 
But  the  truth  of  these  strictures  upon  Koch  himself  might  be 
admitted  without  in  the  least  invalidating  his  assertions  in  regard 
to  what  he  saw.  The  only  question  at  issue  is  "  Did  Koch  find 
the  mastodon  bones  and  the  weapons  in  the  position  which  he 
claims?"  His  report  is  very  circumstantial,  has  an  air  of  truth- 
fulness, and  has  not  been  disproven. 

Dana  fails  to  explain  what  motive  would  have  induced  the 
Indians,  or  whoever  they  were,  to  char  the  bare  bones  and 
leave  them  undisturbed;  or  to  account  for  the  arrow-heads  and 
stones  lying  around  them. 

The  dubious  feature  of  Koch's  communication,  is  the 
charring  of  such  a  large  proportion  of  the  bones ;  the  flesh  cov- 
ering them  would  thereby  have  been  rendered  unfit  for  use, 
and  so  great  a  degree  of  heat  was  certainly  not  necessary  to 
compass  the  death  of  the  animal.  At  the  same  time  it  is  true 
that  in  a  beast  of  such  size  there  would  have  been  a  great 
amount  of  flesh  uninjured  by  the  flames.  It  is  now  too  late  to 
learn  anything  more  definite  about  the  matter. 


Mastodon  Remains.  10^ 

The  next  discovery  was  in  a  salt-pit  at  Petit  Anse  Island, 
off  the  coast  of  Louisiana.     Here  a 

"fragment  of  matting  was  found  near  the  surface  of  the  salt,  and  about 
two  feet  above  it  were  remains  of  tusks  and  bones  of  a  fossil  elephant, 
*  *  *  thus  showing  the  existence  of  man  on  the  island  prior  to  the  de- 
posit in  soil  of  the  fossil  elephant."  "At  the  depth  of  twelve  feet  below 
the  surface  and  immediately  overlying  the  salt-rocks  incredible  quantities 
of  pottery  were  thrown  out  of  the  pits  by  miners,  mingled  with  fragments 
of  the  bones  of  the  elephant  and  other  huge  extinct  quadrupeds."  —  Fos- 
ter, 56-8. 

Fortunately  the  opportunity  was  afforded  for  an  examina- 
tion of  this  locality  by  a  careful  observer,  whose  report  is  thus 
summarized : — 

"Up  to  the  time  of  Dr.  Goessman's  visit,  all  the  borings  and  pits 
which  had  reached  the  salt,  had  been  sunk  in  detrital  material  washed 
down  from  the  surrounding  hills,  and  frequently  enclosing  the  vestiges 
of  both  animal  and  human  visits  to  the  spot.  Mastodon,  buffalo,  deer, 
and  other  bones;  Indian  hatchets,  arrow-heads,  and  rush  baskets,  but 
above  all  an  incredible  quantity  of  pottery  fragments  have  been  extracted 
from  the  pits.  The  pottery  fragments  form  at  some  points  veritable 
strata,  three  to  six  inches  thick;  this  is  especially  the  case  where  [there] 
appeared  to  have  been  a  furnace  for  baking  the  ware  (a  process  very  im- 
perfectly performed),  and  near  it  three  pots  of  successive  sizes,  inside  of 
each  other.  The  pots  must  be  presumed  to  have  subserved  the  purpose 
of  salt-boiling;  for  although  human  handiwork  has  been  found  so  close 
to  the  surface  of  the  salt  as  to  render  it  probable  that  its  existence  in  mass 
was  once  known,  yet  the  boiling  process  alone  has  been  resorted  to,  within 
even  traditional  times,  until  the  discovery,  at  the  bottom  of  a  salt  well, 
of  solid  rock  salt.  *  *  *  It  is  very  positively  stated,  that  mastodon 
bones  were  found  considerably  above  some  of  the  human  relics.  In  a 
detrital  mass,  however,  this  can  not  be  considered  a  crucial  test."  —  Hil- 
gard,  14. 

As  the  pits,  after  being  abandoned  by  the  Indians  were 
filled  with  material  washed  in  from  the  surrounding  soil,  the 
human  remains  which  lay  on  the  outer  surface  would  be  carried 
in  first ;  and  the  mastodon  or  other  bones,  coming  from  a  lower 
level,  would  be  deposited  on  top  of  the  artificial  objects. 

Finally  we  have  the  following  report  of  discoveries  in 
Nebraska. 

"About  two  and  a  half  miles  southeast  of  Omaha,  in  a  railroad  cut, 
I  found  a  large  coarse  arrow  or  spear  head.  It  was  found  twenty  feet 
below  the  top  of  the  Loess,  and  at  least  six  inches  from  the  edge  of  the 
cut,  so  that  it  could  not  have  slid  into  that  place.  *  *  *  Thirteen 
inches  above  the  point  where  the  last  named  arrow  was  found  [he  had 


110  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

previously  found  another  near  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  at  a  depth  of  "fifteen  feet 
below  the  top  of  the  deposit"],  and  within  three  inches  of  being  on  a 
line  with  it,  in  undisturbed  Loess,  there  was  a  lumbar  vertebra  of  an 
elephant.  *  *  *  jj-  appears  clear  from  this  conjunction  of  a  human 
relic  and  proboscidian  remains  that  man  here  as  well  as  in  Europe  was 
the  contemporary  of  the  elephant  in  at  least  a  portion  of  the  Missouri 
Valley."  — Aughey,  254. 

This  find  means  nothing  more  than  that  the  arrow-head 
and  the  vertebra  were  deposited  together,  and  has  no  bearing 
upon  the  age  of  either.  There  is  no  mention  of  any  other  bone ; 
and  the  arrow  (which  is  really  a  spear  head)  is  quite  modern 
in  appearance,  such  as  are  common  on  the  surface  anywhere. 

It  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted,  even  by  geologists,  that 
because  the  mastodon  is  now  extinct,  the  last  one  of  the  species 
must  have  died  a  very  long  time  ago.  Therefore,  if  it  can  be 
shown  that  men  were  familiar  with  the  animal,  the  inference 
follows,  of  necessity,  that  man  also  has  been  upon  the  continent 
for  many  thousand  of  years.  Newberry  says,  in  speaking  of 
the  effigy  mounds  of  Wisconsin, 

"Among  the  animals  thus  represented  is  what  seems  to  be  the  ele- 
phant or  mastodon.  Small  figures  of  an  elephantine  animal  also  appear 
in  the  archaeological  collections  of  the  Northwest  and  are  claimed  to  be 
authentic.  These  relics  go  far  to  prove  the  acquaintance  of  the  Mound 
Builders  with  either  the  mastodon  or  mammoth,  and  may  be  accepted  as 
presumptive  evidence  of  the  synchronism  of  man  here,  as  in  Europe,  with 
one  or  both  of  these  great  pachyderms  —  and  hence  of  his  great  antiquity." 
—  Newberry,  P.  S.  M.,  195. 

Figure  1  gives  the  outline  of  the  "Elephant  Mound,"  from 
a  careful  survey  made  by  Middleton  with  the  assistance  of  a 
civil  engineer.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  so-called  effigy  has 
very  little  resemblance  to  any  animal.  Jacob  Warner's  sketch, 
published  many  years  previously  in  one  of  the  Smithsonian 
Reports,  is  reproduced  in  the  Bureau  report  for  comparison. 
It  differs  from  Middleton's  somewhat,  but  to  no  greater  extent 
than  would  naturally  result  from  farming  operations  in  the 
time  between  the  two  observations^  except  that  there  is  a 
prolongation  of  the  muzzle  in  Warner's  drawing  that  does  not 
appear  in  Middleton's.  Norris  made  a  sketch  different  from 
Warner's  in  that  the  supposed  ''trunk"  is  curved  inward;  he 
also  mentions  an  extension  at  the  back  of  the  head  which 
seems  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  everyone  else,  although 
he  says  it  is  ''from  2  to  3  feet  high."     When  there  are  such 


The  Mound  Builder  and  the  Mastodon. 


Ill 


Figure  1  —  The  "  Elephant  Mound"  of  Wisconsin. 


Figure  S, 


Figure  3. 
The  "  Elephant  Pipes  "  from  Iowa. 


112  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

discrepancies  in  statement,  and  the  most  accurate  measurements-- 
fail  to  show  any  ''proboscis"  at  all,  Thomas  would  have  proba- 
bly been  nearer  the  truth  to  deny  its  existence  altogether  than 
to  say  it  ''was  evidently  a  shifting  line  of  sand." —  B.  E.  12,  92. 

The  "  small  figures  of  an  elephantine  animal "  to  which 
Newberry  refers,  are  two  pipes  found  near  Davenport,  Iowa. 
All  the  evidence  for  and  against  their  genuineness  is  collected 
by  Henshaw,  in  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology.  Both  cuts  are  reproduced  here  as  figures  2  and 
3.  The  officers  of  the  Davenport  Academy  of  Science,  who 
secured  the  specimens,  are  positive  of  their  authenticity ;  Henshaw 
is  equally  certain  they  are  frauds;  and  so  the  matter  stands. 

Another  author  makes  use  of  a  most  singular  argument  in 
this  connection.  Pie  attempts  to  show  tJiat  the  Monnd  Builders 
are  a  very  ancient  race,  not  because  they  vv^cre  acquainted  with 
the  form  of  the  Mastodon  but  because  it  was  impossible  they 
could  know  anything  about  the  animal.  The  funny  twist  in 
his  logic  may  not  be  apparent  at  a  glance,  but  it  is  worth 
finding. 

"  No  bones  of  any  of  the  elephant  family  have  been  found  in  the 
ancient  monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  striking  form  of 
this  family  is  not  delineated  on  their  pottery.  In  all  the  Mound  Builders' 
relics  from  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  no  trace  of  the  elephant  family  has 
been  found.  *  *  *  These  animals  must  have  ceased  to  exist  in  the 
United  States  long  before  the  Mound  Builders  began  to  flourish.  *  *  * 
As  they  became  extinct  a  great  many  centuries  ago  (several  thousand 
years,  perhaps),  we  have  it  definitely  settled  then  that  a  great  antiquity 
must  be  assigned  to  the  Mound  Builders."  —  McLean,  136. 

Perhaps  the  trend  of  speculation  upon  this  subject  has 
all  along  been  in  the  wrong  direction  and  should  be  reversed. 
If  the  elephant  family  passed  out  of  existence  prior  to  the 
advent  of  the  Mound  Builder,  it  may  be  that  the  arrival,  or 
development,  of  the  latter  in  the  Ohio  Valley  is  much  more 
recent  than  commonly  believed.  Bones,  teeth,  even  entire  skele- 
tons of  mastodons  or  mammoths  are  frequently  found  in  situ- 
ations where  it  would  seem  impossible  they  could  retain  their 
form  and  solidity  for  a  great  length  of  time.  Big  Bone  Lick, 
in  Boone  county,  Kentucky,  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Cin- 
cinnati, received  its  name  from  the  vast  quantity  of  bones  of 
these  animals,  formerly  scattered  about  on  the  ground.  The 
spot  was  discovered  in   1773  by  a  party  of  hunters  who  used 


Age  of  the  Mastodon.  '  113 

the  ribs  for  tent  poles  and  the  vertebrse  for  seats.  Only  small 
fragments,  turned  up  by  the  plow,  are  now  to  be  observed, 
numerous  visitors  having  carried  away  everything  they  could 
find  ;  but  people  living  in  the  vicinity  a  few  years  ago  could 
remember  when  the  surface  was  strewn  with  well-preserved 
vertebrse,  tusks,  and  other  portions  of  the  frame-work.  The 
springs  are  in  a  deep  basin  whose  nearly  level  bottom  contains 
a  considerable  area  of  farming  land.  The  only  outlet  is  a 
narrow  depression  through  which  flows  a  little  creek.  Where 
the  remains  were  most  abundant  the  ground  is  saturated  with 
strong  sulphur  water,  which  will  explain  the  preservation  of 
those  beneath  the  soil  ;  but  there  are  no  indications  of  denu- 
dation of  such  character  as  would  remove  all  the  earth  to  a 
certain  depth  and  then  cease  to  act. 

Scarcely  a  month  passes  in  which  the  public  prints  do 
not  herald  the  discovery  of  mastodon  remains.  They  usually 
occur  in  swamps  or  other  low  grounds,  especially  where  shallov,' 
lakes  formerly  existed.  When  aquatic  vegetation  once  gains 
a  foothold  in  such  places  the  depression  is  rapidly  filled  with 
peat  or  muck,  and  animals  resorting  to  them  for  food  or  water 
may  mire  and  perish.  In  Ohio,  and  particularly  in  the  north- 
ern portion  of  the  state,  these  lakes  post-date  the  retreat  of 
the  glacier,  and  many  of  them  are  still  far  from  being  filled; 
so  their  age,  measured  even  in  years,  can  not  be  extreme. 
When  we  find  the  bones  of  any  animal  in  a  swamp  of  this  nature, 
much  closer  to  the  roots  of  the  sod  than  to  the  solid  earth 
below,  it  is  evident  that  the  time  of  their  inhumation  will  not 
em.brace  many  centuries.  Consequently,  if  the  anim.al  became 
extinct  before  man  appeared  the  latter  may  be  a  very  recent 
immigrant. 

THE    BUFFALO. 

The  bufifalo,  as  well  as  the  mammoth,  has  served  as  a  time 
measurer. 

"  None  of  the  bones  of  extinct  animals  have  been  found  in  the 
mounds;  nor  has  the  buffalo,  long  a  ranger  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
been  identified  in  the  shapes  of  the  mounds."  —  Winsor,  History,  I,  403. 

The  latter  statement  is  contradicted  by  Henderson  who 
says  it  is  represented    in    the    animal    mounds    of  Wisconsin. 


114  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

He  also  claims  that  the  spinous  processes  of  a  buffalo  have  been 
found  in  a  mound  in  Dakota. —  Henderson,  713. 

Its  asserted  presence  or  absence  in  the  effigy  mounds  is 
immaterial ;  for  among  the  latter,  persons  gifted  with  a  suffi- 
cient degree  of  "  imagination  "  can  see  anything  they  are  look- 
ing for,  or  fail  to  detect  a  resemblance  to  anything  they  do 
not  expect  to  find. 

There  is  proof,  however,  that  the  buffalo  was  known  to 
builders  of  mounds  from  Dakota,  as  cited  above,  to  the  Blue 
Ridge.  From  a  mound  in  the  river  bottom-land  near  Corning 
in  the  northwest  corner  of  Missouri,  at  a  depth  of  five  or  six 
feet,  I  dug  some  teeth  w^hich  were  pronounced  to  be  those  of 
a  buffalo  by  anatomists  at  the  Cincinnati  Society  of  Natural 
History. 

"In  a  very  large  mound,  square  in  shape,  three  hundred  feet  on 
each  side  and  thirty  feet  high  [opposite  St.  Louis],  there  were  found, 
in  contact  with  a  number  of  copper  implements  and  ornaments,  a  num- 
ber of  the  teeth  of  the  buffalo.  *  *  *  They  had  most  probably  been 
worn  as  ornaments."  —  McAdams,  35. 

Putnam  found  a  "pendant  made  of  buffalo  horn"  on  an  altar 
at  the  Turner  mounds  (see  page  386). 

"The  entire  skeleton  of  a  bison  was  found  by  Professor  Appey  in 
a  large  tumulus  [near  Granville,  Ohio,]  associated  with  human  remains." 
—  Moorehead,  19. 

Lying  on  the  natural  surface,  in  a  mound  near  Luray, 
Virginia,  I  found  the  bones  of  a  young  buffalo,  identified  as 
such  at  the  Army  Medical  Museum  in  Washington.  Only  a 
portion  of  the  skeleton  was  present,  there  being  no  trace  of  the 
leg  or  shoulder  bones.  The  vertebrae  were  in  their  proper 
position,  and  the  ribs,  some  of  them  still  firm  and  strong 
enough  to  be  taken  out  intact,  extended  into  the  earth  of  the 
mound  above  them.  It  was  evident  that  the  animal  had  been 
dissected  on  the  spot,  a  part  of  the  carcass  carried  away,  and 
the  remainder  intentionally  covered  by  the  tumulus.  It  lay 
within  a  few  feet  of  a  number  of  graves  under  the  central 
part  of  the  moimd,  and  the  flesh  may  have  been  consumed  by 
workmen  engaged  in  the  labor  of  constructing  the  tumulus. 

These  are  the  only  instances  recorded ;  but  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  rem.ains  of  this  animal  should  occur  so  rarely  in 
mounds.  The  entire  carcass  of  a  buffalo  is  too  heavy  and 
unwieldy   for  a  party  of  hunters  to   carry.      The   flesh   would 


Buffalo  Bones  —  Condition  of  Human  Skeletons.        115 

be  cut  off  where  the  animal  was  killed  and  the  bones  left  where 
they  lay.  The  latter  were  not  converted  into  implements  or 
utensils  because,  being  of  coarser  texture,  they  were  less  strong 
and  hard  than  the  bones  of  smaller  or  more  active  (beasts. 
Or,  if  some  of  them  were  utilized,  from  these  same  causes 
they  would  decay  more  rapidly  when  thrown  aside  or  buried. 

But  a  scientist  of  wide  reputation,  who  holds  an  important 
professorship  in  one  of  our  great  universities,  assures  us  that 
the  beast  effectively,  though  perhaps  unconsciously,  wreaked 
dire  vengeance  for  this  unmerited  neglect  and  contumely. 

Geese  saved  Rome  ;  buffaloes  overthrew  the  Mound 
Builders'  empire. 

Were  the  following  quotation  the  composition  ot  an  un- 
known or  ignorant  individual,  we  could  dismiss  it  as  twaddle  ; 
coming  as  it  does  from  one  holding  so  eminent  a  position, 
our  attitude  must  be  that  expressed  in  Goldsmith's  line.  "And 
still  they  gazed  and  still  the  wonder  grew." 

"About  a  thousand  years  or  so  ago,  perhaps  less,  the  buffalo,  a 
creature  of  the  plain  lands,  began  to  appear  in  this  part  of  the  country. 
*  *  *  The  coming  of  this  creature  coincided  with  the  change  of  these 
peoples  to  a  more  barbarous  condition.  This  pientitude  of  meat  appears 
to  have  had  a  debasing  effect  on  all  the  peoples  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  They 
no  longer  tilled  as  much;  their  settlements,  with  their  mounds  and  forts, 
were  abandoned  as  far  as  this  epoch-making  beast  extended  his  march. 
The  Indians  of  the  south,  where  the  dense  forests  and  the  swamp-mar- 
gined streams  presented  a  barrier  to  the  migration  of  the  buffalo,  remained 
principally  soil-tillers,  as  did  the  Indians  of  New  York,  while  other  west- 
ern tribes  became  nomadic."  —  Shaler,  46. 

HUMAN    BONES. 

Among  other  bones  which  have  been  called  upon  to  offer 
testimony  as  to  the  period  at  which  the  Mound  Builders  inhab- 
ited this  region,  are  those  of  the  Mound  Builders  themselves. 

"Considering  that  the  earth  around  these  skeletons  is  wonderfully 
■compact  and  dry,  and  that  the  conditions  for  their  preservation  are  ex- 
ceedingly favorable,  while  they  are  in  fact  so  much  decayed,  we  may 
form  some  approximate  estimate  of  their  remote  antiquity.  In  the  bar- 
rows of  the  ancient  Britons,  entire  well-preserved  skeletons  are  found, 
although  possessing  an  undoubted  antiquity  of  at  least  eighteen  hundred 
years."  —  S.  &  D.,  168. 

On  Long  Island,  in  the  Holston  River,  East  Tennessee,  "the  skel- 
etons on  low  bottom  lands  were  in  better  condition  than  those  found  in 


116  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  red  clay  mounds  of  the  uplands.  It  is  inferred  from  this  *  *  *= 
that  the  mounds  on  the  higher  portion  are  much  older  than  those  on  the 
lower  point."  —  B.  E.  12,  363. 

The  condition  of  a  skeleton  bears  no  relation  to  the  length 
of  time  that  has  passed  since  the  period  of  its  interment.  The 
preservation  of  bones  is  dependent  almost  entirely  upon  the  pro- 
tection afforded  them.  If  kept  perfectly  dry  they  will  last  indefi- 
nitely; if  exposed  to  dampness,  especially  to  the  percolation 
of  rain  water,  they  will  disappear  in  a  very  short  time.  In 
sandy  ground  they  will  last  much  longer  than  in  clay;  which 
is  the  real  explanation  of  the  difference  of  condition  in  the 
Tennessee  graves.  Water  fully  charged  with  lime  seems  to  effect 
them  but  little.  The  physical  condition  of  the  individual  also 
has  a  decided  influence.  Frequently,  in  the  same  mound,  at  the 
same  level,  in  the  same  kind  of  earth,  in  short  under  identical 
conditions  so  far  as  could  be  determined  by  careful  inspection, 
I  have  found  bones  so  fragile  that  they  would  fall  to  frag- 
ments when  their  removal  was  attempted,  while  others  within 
a  few  feet  were  hard  enough  to  withstand  a  sharp  blow  with 
a  trowel.  This  feature  has  also  been  observed  in  the  mounds 
of  Florida  and  perhaps  elsewhere. 

"At  times,  in  various  portions  of  the  mound,  the  skeleton  was  rep- 
resented by  remains  with  hardly  greater  consistency  than  putty,  while 
again,  often  at  no  great  distance  from  the  base,  the  bones  were  fairly 
well  preserved.  Such  remains  lay  near  oyster  shells  from  which,  doubt- 
less, the  infiltration  of  lime  was  a  potent  factor."  —  Moore,  Duval,  32. 

"In  the  west  of  France  bones  in  mounds,  cairns,  and  graves,  known 
to  be  not  less  than  2,000  years  old,  are  quite  sound  and  solid;  while  in 
the  east  of  France,  in  tumuli  of  the  same  age,  and  under  practically  iden- 
tical conditions,  the  bones  have  in  all  cases  mouldered  into  the  consistency 
of  ashes,  and  in  many  cases  have  entirely  disappeared."  —  Thomas  Wil- 
son; communicated. 

In  1803  a  party  of  Indians  left  Piqua,  Ohio,  for  Michigan. 
They  had  gone  but  a  little  distance  when  smallpox  broke  out 
among  them.  Some  of  them  died  and  were  buried  in  stout 
oaken  puncheons.  Excavations  in  these  graves  in  1879  revealed 
fragments  of  the  wood  as  light  as  cork  though  still  strong 
enough  to  be  taken  out  in  pieces  as  large  as  a  man's  hand  ; 
but  not  a  trace  of  bone  was  discoverable. 

In  Ross  county,  in  1900,  two  bodies  were  removed  from 
an  old  cemetery.    All  the  bones  of  one,  buried  in  1804,  were  in 


Trees  on  Mounds.  117 

■good  condition  except  a  few  of  the  phalanges,  which  had 
entirely  disappeared.  The  other  skeleton,  buried  in  1824,  was 
intact  except  for  one  arm,  which  had  crumbled  away. 

The  essential  preliminaries  to  research  in  this  direction  were 
pointed  out  two  generations  ago. 

"As  a  starting  point  to  investigation,  it  ought  to  be  first  settled  how 
long  human  bones  will  retain  their  form  and  solidity  without  decomposi- 
tion, when  exposed  to  the  air,  earth,  water,  and  other  causes  of  decay, 
interred  two  or  three  feet  deep  in  the  earth.  Will  they  preserve  their  form 
and  soundness  over  two,  or  at  the  most  three  hundred  years?  Are  not 
the  relics  of  the  early  pilgrims  of  New  England,  and  the  first  settlers 
of  Jamestown  mouldered  entirely  to  dust?  Will  any  one  say  that  human 
skeletons,  entombed  as  those  are  in  the  mounds  of  Illinois,  but  two  or 
three  feet  below  the  surface,  remain  in  a  state  of  preservation  five  or  six 
hundred  years?  A  sober  investigation  of  these  questions  would  result  in 
an  entire  overthrow  of  the  hypothesis  of  existing  races  of  men  prior  to 
the  Indians,  founded  upon  such  remains."  —  Peck,  36. 

TREES. 

The  extent  of  forests  and  the  size  of  trees  growing  over 
mound  areas,  have  been  held  conclusive  evidence  that  the  aban- 
donment of  these  works  took  place  many  centuries  ago.  Nearly 
every  publication  on  the  subject  of  archaeology  contains  some 
such  assertion.  The  tenor  of  all  is  fairly  exhibited  by  quota- 
tions from  four  authors. 

"The  high  antiquity  of  this  mining  is  inferred  from  these  facts: 
That  the  trenches  and  pits  are  filled  even  with  the  surrounding  surface ; 
that  over  the  pits  were  trees  of  the  same  size  and  character  as  those  in  the 
adjacent  forests;  that  the  nature  of  the  material  with  which  the  pits  were 
filled  indicated  the  slow  accumulation  of  years.  There  were  counted  three 
hundred  and  ninety-five  annular  rings  on  a  hemlock  growing  on  a  pile 
of  debris.  One  trench  was  filled  nearly  flush  with  the  wash  of  the  sur- 
rounding surface."  —  Foster,  264-7,  condensed. 

"This  habitation  must  have  been  very  ancient,  for  the  present  in- 
habitiants  of  the  country  remember  to  have  seen  the  mound  covered  with 
venerable  trees,  which  have  now  disappeared."  —  Nadaillac,  485. 

"Actual  examination  showed  the  existence  of  not  far  from  two  hun- 
dred annual  rings  or  layers  to  the  foot,  in  the  large  chestnut  tree  already 
mentioned,  now  standing  upon  the  entrenchments.  *  *  *  \Ye  are 
irresistibly  led  to  the  conclusion  that  [Fort  Hill]  has  an  antiquity  of  at 
least  one  thousand  years."  —  S.  &  D.,  16. 

"As  to  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  mines  and  structures 
of  the  Mound  Builders  were  abandoned  [they]  were  found  by  the  incom- 
tng  whites  covered  with  dense  forests  in  which  the  trees  had  attained 


118  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

their  maximum  size.  Beneath  this  present  generation  of  trees,  and  over- 
grown by  their  roots,  were  lying  the  prostrate  and  decaying  trunks  of  a 
preceding  generation.  We  thus  have  evidence  that  at  least  a  thousand 
years  have  elapsed  since  the  country  was  abandoned  by  its  former  in- 
habitants, and  their  fields  and  villages  were  overgrown  by  the  forests."' 
—  Newberry,  P.  S.  M.,  194. 

The  count  of  ''  200  rings  to  the  foot "  in  the  chestnut 
tree,  means  that  each  ring  is  a  little  less  than  one-sixteenth 
of  an  inch.  While  this  may  be  true  of  the  outer  few  inches- 
of  a  very  large  tree  whose  growth  has  practically  ceased,  any 
one  who  will  count  all  the  rings  in  a  chestnut  tree,  from  the 
center  to  the  bark  will  see  that  the  average  thickness  is  at  least 
twice  as  great  as  the  measure  quoted. 

Newberry's  statement  means,  if  it  means  anything,  that 
all  trees,  regardless  of  species,  live  and  grow  for  500  years  ; 
that  trees  standing  on  mounds  are  500  years  old;  that  they 
have  been  preceded  by  one  generation  —  or  more  —  of  other 
trees  which  promptly  fell  down  at  the  allotted  time  to  make  room 
for  the  new  growth  ;  and,  finally,  that  these  older  trees  have 
lain  on  the  ground,  exposed  to  the  elements,  for  500  years  and 
preserved  their  forms  all  that  time.  Absurdity  can  not  go^ 
further. 

"Gericke,  the  great  German  forester,  writes  that  the  greatest  ages 
to  which  trees  are  positively  known  to  have  lived  are  from  500  to  570 
years.  For  instance,  the  pine  in  Bohemia  and  the  pine  in  Norway  and 
Sweden  have  lived  to  the  latter  age.  Next  comes  the  silver  fir  which 
in  the  Bohemian  forests  has  stood  and  thrived  for  upwards  of  400  years. 
*  *  *  Of  foliage  trees,  the  oak  appears  to  have  survived  the  longest. 
[One]  reached  the  age  of  410  years.  Other  oaks  in  Germany  have  lived 
to  be  from  315  to  320  years  old."  Other  known  ages  are  given  of  various 
trees:  Red  beech,  225  to  245  years;  ash,  170;  birch,  160  to  200;  aspen, 
220 ;  mountain  maple,  225 ;  elm,  130 ;  and  red  alder,  145  years. —  Sci.  Am. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  the  last  sentence  denotes  the  life 
limit  of  species  mentioned,  or  the  known  age  of  specimens 
still  growing  ;    elm  certainly  lives  longer  than  130  years. 

"An  elm  at  Cambridge,  just  as  it  had  reached  its  hundredth  anni- 
versary, was  fourteen  feet  in  circumference.  The  'Aspinwall  elm,'  at 
Brookline,  was  known  to  be  one-hundred  and  eighty-one  years  old  in 
3837,  when  it  measured  sixteen  feet  eight  inches  at  five  feet  from  the 
ground.  A  cypress-trunk,  which  grew  near  Wilmington,  North  Carolina, 
with  a  diameter  of  fifty-four  inches,  exhibits  six  hundred  and  seventy 
annual  layers.     The  trunk  was  thirteen  inches  in  diameter  at  the  expira- 


Rate  of  Growth  of  Trees.  119 

tion  of  its  first  century;  and  twenty-seven  inches,  about  the  close  of  the 
second;  it  added  seven  inches  to  its  diameter  during  the  third  century, 
and  a  nearly  equal  amount  during  the  fourth ;  and  for  the  remaining  three 
hundred  and  seventy  years,  it  grew  at  a  still  slower,  but,  on  the  whole,, 
nearly  equal  rate."  —  N.  A.  Rev.,  204  and  236,  condensed. 

There  must  be  some  mistake  about  the  number  of  rings 
in  this  cypress  ;  for  one  planted  in  Philadelphia  in  i8o8,  had 
in  1892  a  height  of  120  feet  and  a  girth  of  28  feet.  Cypress 
is  a  soft  wood  and  grows  rapidly.  An  elm  in  Chicago,  known 
to  be  just  fifty  years  old,  measured  eight  feet  and  two  inches 
in  circumference,  three  feet  from  the  ground. 

In  Racine,  Wisconsin,  "in  1847-48,  an  organization  was  formed  for 
the  purpose  of  planting  trees,  some  of  which,  at  this  time  [he  was  writing 
in  1882  —  35  years  afterward],  have  attained  to  a  somewhat  remarkable 
size.  I  have  recently  measured  some  of  the  largest.  The  white  elms  are 
from  six  to  eight  feet  in  circumference  two  feet  from  the  ground.  Ma- 
ples from  four  to  five  feet;  black  and  golden  willows,  eight  feet;  poplars, 
eight  and  one-half  to  nine  feet.  Not  long  since  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
counting  the  rings  and  accurately  measuring  one  of  these  street  elms, 
the  diameter,  two  feet  from  the  ground,  inside  the  bark,  twenty-four 
inches,  rings  forty-eight  —  an  average  of  just  one-fourth  of  an  inch  to 
a  ring,  giving  an  increase  in  diameter  each  year  of  one-half  an  inch." 
[It  will  be  observed  that  he  records  forty-eight  rings  in  a  tree  whose  age 
is  known  to  be  not  more  than  thirty-five  years.]  "Near  Racine,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1850,  there  was  a  pin  oak  sapling  growing.  *  *  *  That  sap- 
ling now  [in  32  years]  is  fifty-six  inches  in  circumference."  —  Hoy,  15. 

Dr.  Hoy  says,  also,  that  in  most  forest  trees  the  breadth 
of  the  annual  ring  diminishes  almost  uniformly  from  the  cen- 
ter to  the  bark,  with  the  annual  growth. 

At  the  old  fort  in  Desha  county,  Arkansas,  supposed  to  be  of  French 
origin,  "thirty-six  years  ago  the  trees  now  growing  on  the  new-made 
lands  along  the  river  some  of  which  are  three  feet  in  diameter  were 
small  saplings."  — B.  E.  12,  238. 

Old  Fort  Chartres,  Illinois,  was  abandoned  in  1772.  We 
learn  that  in  1820  "  in  the  hall  of  one  of  the  houses,  there  is  an 
oak  tree  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter." —  Beck,  109. 

The  acorn  from  which  this  oak  grew,  could  not  have  sprouted 
until  the  building  had  fallen  into  such  decay  as  to  allow  the 
ground  beneath  to  be  come  wet. 

"  In  1856  I  transplanted  an  elm  and  a  red  maple ;  each  measured, 
at  four  feet  from  the  ground,  eight  inches  diameter.  In  1876  the  elm 
measured  two  feet,  the  maple  two  feet  eight  inches  in  diameter.     A  dozen 


120  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

or  more  trees  increased  in  eighteen  years  from  about  three  inches  di- 
ameter to  an  average  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  inches.  All  were  ex- 
celled in  rapidity  of  growth  by  a  black  walnut ;  a  mere  whip-stock  when 
planted,  but  twenty  years  afterward  a  lofty  tree,  with  a  trunk  four  feet 
in  circumference."  In  1886  this  tree  had  attained  a  circumference  of  six 
feet.  —  Hubbard,  409. 

A  fort  was  constructed  on  Jamestown  Island,  below  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  some  time  in  the  civil  war  —  certainly  not  earlier 
than  1 86 1.  In  the  bottom  of  the  encircling  ditch,  is  a  pine  tree 
which  I  measured  in  1891  and  found  it  to  be  seventeen  inches 
in  diameter  at  four  feet  from  the  ground.  This  measure  included 
the  bark. 

Some  years  since  a  hill-side  field  at  Youngsville,  Pennsyl- 
vania, was  cleared  off  and  the  large  timber  hauled  to  a  saw  mill. 
Many  of  the  trees  had  upward  of  a  hundred  growth-rings,  the 
greatest  number  being  observed  in  a  hickory  in  which  one  hundred 
and  forty  rings  were  counted.  A  resident  of  the  town^  Mr. 
Davis,  then  in  his  eighty-fifth  year,  said  he  had  helped  to  plant 
corn  on  that  field  when  a  small  boy,  and  that  it  was  then  entirely 
free  of  any  growth  that  could  interfere  with  cultivation. 

This  is  only  one  instance,  of  many  which  have  been  noted, 
that  no  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  the  number  of  rings  in  esti- 
mating the  age  of  a  tree.  It  is  probably  true  as  a  general  rule 
that  one  definite  ring  forms  each  year ;  but  the  alternations  of  heat 
and  cold,  drought  and  moisture,  prevent  the  law  from  being 
invariable.  Not  that  a  tree  ever  fails  to  make  a  certain  growth 
throughout  a  season ;  but  the  rate  may  be  irregular  through  inter- 
ruptions of  the  vital  processes  from  the  causes  mentioned.  From 
a  check  in  the  flow  of  sap,  there  may  result  a  hardening  of  cel- 
lular structure  that  will  separate  one  year's  growth  into  two  or 
more  apparent  parts,  each  of  which  may  be  mistaken  for  an 
annual  layer.  In  this  inanner  the  number  of  growth-rings 
formed  within  a  series  of  years,  as  well  as  the  rate  of  growth, 
may  be  affected.  Trees  in  tropical  regions  seem  especially  sub- 
ject to  these  influences.  In  his  description  of  the  ruins  at  Pal- 
enque,  Charnay  says 

"  The  size  of  the  trees  growing  between  and  over  these  structures 
has  been  adduced  as  a  conclusive  proof  of  the  age  of  these  monuments. 
*  *  *  Mr.  Lorainzar  computed  that  these  monuments  must  be  1700 
years  old,  -because  he  found  a  mahogany  table  made  of  one  single  piece 
from  a  tree  in  these  ruins.  His  reasoning  is  based  on  the  erroneous 
notion  that  a  concentric  circle  represents  one  year,  whereas  I  ascertained 


Windfalls  and  Root-Casts.  121 

that  In  a  tropical  country  nature  never  rests;  for  chancing  to  cut  a  twig 
some  eighteen  months  old,  I  counted  no  less  than  eighteen  concentric  cir- 
cles. To  assure  myself  that  this  was  not  an  isolated  fact,  I  cut  branches 
and  trees  of  every  size  and  description,  when  the  same  phenomenon 
occurred  in  exactly  the  same  proportion.  *  *  *  in  my  first  expedi- 
tion to  Palenque  in  1859,  I  had  the  eastern  side  of  the  palace  cleared  of 
its  dense  vegetation  to  secure  a  good  photograph.  Consequently  the  trees 
that  have  grown  since  can  not  be  more  than  twenty-two  years  old;  now 
one  of  the  cuttings  measuring  some  two  feet  in  diameter,  had  upwards  of 
230  concentric  circles,  that  is  at  the  rate  of  one  a  month  or  even  less; 
it  follows  that  the  seventeen  centuries  of  Mr.  Lorainzar  must  be  reduced 
to  150  or  at  most  200  years."  —  Charnay,  259. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  probable  that  there  are  few,  if  any,  trees 
in  Ohio  four  hundred  years  old ;  with  an  annual  growth  of  one- 
eighth  of  an  inch  of  new  fiber,  a  tree  will  in  that  time  reach  a  cir- 
cumference of  twenty-six  feet.  Few  varieties  of  timber  will 
fail  to  exceed  this  rate  of  increase  in  the  fertile  ground  where 
most  aboriginal  remains  occur;  in  fact  they  should  grow  more 
rapidly  on  the  works  than  elsewhere,  as  these  are  usually  made 
of  the  surface  earth  and  therefore  furnish  more  nutriment  to 
the  roots. 

In  any  old  forest  the  ground  is  dotted  with  little  depres- 
sions where  trees  have  been  uprooted  by  the  wind.  The  absence 
of  similar  depressions  upon  mounds  or  embankments  may,  as 
maintained  by  some,  refute  the  idea  that  successive  generations 
of  trees  have  stood  on  the  works.  But  on  a  sloping  surface  such 
an  excavation  would  probably  soon  be  filled  up  by  the  wash 
from  above,  or  form  the  starting-point  of  a  gulley  that  would 
destroy  its  outline.  A  more  satisfactory  contradiction  of  the 
theory  may  be  found  within  the  structure.  Tne  roots  of  trees 
reach  many  feet  into  the  interior  of  mounds.  In  exploring  a 
tumulus  at  Waverly  it  was  found  that  a  root  from  a  sassafras 
tree  which  grew  on  the  top,  followed  a  tortuous  course  through 
the  structure  and  passed  into  the  original  soil  beneath  at  a  dis- 
tance of  thirteen  feet  vertically  and  thirty-two  feet  horizontally 
from  the  point  whence  it  started.  Where  it  disappeared  it  was 
nearly  two  inches  in  diameter ;  so  that  it  probably  extended  much 
farther.  When  these  roots  decay,  the  casts  may  easily  be  recog- 
nized by  the  mould  in  them,  either  from  the  roots  themselves 
or  from  matter  that  has  worked  its  way  in  from  the  surface. 
If  successive  generations  of  trees  had  flourished  in  such  situa- 
tions, it  would  seem  that  mounds  must  contain  a  great  number 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


of  these  casts ;  but  they  are  comparatively  few.  This  gives  reason 
for  supposing  that  the  mounds  do  not  reach  back  many  centuries. 
To  avoid  such  conclusion,  recourse  is  had  to  the  groundless 
assumption  that  until  relatively  recent  times  the  Ohio  valley  was 
devoid  of  forests,  and  that  consequently  the  country  was  a 
prairie  in  the  age  of  the  Mound  Builders. 

Mr.  Read,  who  first  put  this  idea  into  tangible  form,  made 
no  attempt  to  prove  that  the  earthworks  are  either  ancient  or 
modern,  as  measured  in  years.  Others  have  put  this  construc- 
tion on  his  words.  He  wished  only  to  call  attention  to  possi- 
ble conditions. 

"  But  was  this  ground  ever  occupied  by  forests  until  the  abandon- 
ment of  these  works  ?  Their  erection  with  Mound  builders'  tools,  if  it 
involved  the  clearing  of  a  forest  as  a  preliminary  work,  is  so  nearly  im- 
possible that  we  can  not  imagine  it  would  be  ever  undertaken.  It  involved 
not  only  the  clearing  of  these  lands  of  the  forest,  but  also  the  neighboring 
lands  which  were  to  be  subjected  to  tillage.  It  is  with  the  utmost  diffi- 
culty, in  moist  and  tropical  climates,  that  men  armed  with  steel  tools 
make  successful  battle  with  the  forests.  It  is  much  more  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  these  works  were  located  in  a  treeless  region,  and  the  works 
evidently  of  the  same  age  scattered  over  the  country  indicate  that  this 
treeless  region  was  of  large  extent,  covering  probably  most  of  the  alluvial 
valley.  The  inference  would  follow  that  the  abandonment  of  the  region 
marked  the  time  when  the  slow  intrusion  of  the  forests  reduced  the 
amount  of  tillable  land  below  the  necessities  of  the  community ;  the  time 
since  their  abandonment  marks  the  whole  period  of  forest  growth  on  the 
alluvial  bottoms."  —  Read,  Arch.,  84. 

The  abundance  of  charred  or  decayed  timber  in  mounds, 
some  of  it  coming  from  large  trees,  effectually  disposes  of  this 
hypothesis.  There  was  not  only  timber,  but  it  existed  in  great 
variety,  as  much  so,  perhaps,  as  at  tue  present  day.  We  know 
also  that  modern  Indians  had  no  difficulty  in  clearing  up  as 
much  land  as  they  needed,  by  deadening  and  burning.  To  admit 
Read's  theory,  and  Harrison's,  next  presented,  we  would  be  com- 
pelled to  carry  the  Mound  Builder  back  almost  to  the  Ice  Age. 

"  The  process  by  which  nature  restores  the  forest  to  its  original  state, 
after  being  once  cleared,  is  extremely  slow.  In  our  rich  lands,  it  is, 
indeed,  soon  covered  again  with  timber,  but  the  character  of  the  growth 
is  entirely  different,  and  continues  so  through  many  generations  of  men. 
In  several  places  on  the  Ohio,  particularly  upon  the  farm  which  I  occupy, 
clearings  were  made  in  the  first  settlement,  abandoned,  and  suffered  to 
grow  up.  Some  of  them,  now  to  be  seen,  of  nearly  fifty  years  growth, 
have  made  so  little  progress  toward  attaining  the  appearance  of  the  im- 


Renezual  of  Forests.  123^ 

mediately  contiguous  forest,  as  to  induce  any  man  of  reflection,  to  deter- 
mine, that  at  least  ten  times  fifty  years  would  be  necessary  before  its  com- 
plete assimilation  could  be  effected.  The  sites  of  the  ancient  works  on 
the  Ohio,  present  precisely  the  same  appearance  as  the  circumjacent  for- 
est. You  find  on  them,  all  that  beautiful  variety  of  trees,  which  gives  such 
unrivaled  richness  to  our  forests.  This  is  particularly  the  case,  on  the 
fifteen  acres  included  within  the  walls  of  the  work,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Great  Miami,  and  the  relative  proportions  of  the  different  kinds  of  timber, 
are  about  the  same.  The  first  growth  on  the  same  kind  of  land,  once 
cleared,  and  then  abandoned  to  nature,  on  the  contrary,  is  more  homo- 
geneous— ^^  often  stinted  to  one,  or  two,  or  at  most  three  kinds  of  timber. 
If  the  ground  had  been  cultivated,  yellow  locust,  in  many  places,  will 
spring  up  as  thick  as  garden  peas.  If  it  has  not  been  cultivated,  the  black 
and  white  walnut  will  be  the  prevailing  growth.  The  rapidity  with  which 
these  trees  grow  for  a  time,  smothers  the  attempt  of  other  kinds  to  vege- 
tate and  grow  in  their  shade.  *  *  *  This  state  of  things  will  not,  how- 
ever, always  continue.  *  *  *  jj^g  preference  of  the  soil  for  the  first 
growth,  ceases  with  its  maturity,  *  *  *  ^nd  whenever  this  is  the  case, 
one  of  the  oft-rejected  of  another  family,  will  find  between  its  decaying 
roots,  shelter  and  appropriate  food.  *  *  *  j^  will  easily  be  conceived 
what  a  length  of  time  it  will  require  for  a  denuded  tract  of  land,  by  a  pro- 
cess so  slow  again  to  clothe  itself  with  the  amazing  variety  of  foliage 
which  is  the  characteristic  of  the  forests  of  this  region.  Of  what  immense 
age,  then,  must  be  those  works,  so  often  referred  to,  covered,  as  has  been 
supposed  by  those  who  have  the  best  opportunity  of  examining  them,  with 
the  second  growth  after  the  ancient  forest  state  had  been  regained?"  — 
Harrison,  248. 

Some  error  of  observation  or  reasoning  is  involved  in  these 
conclusions.  It  is  true  that  when  a  field  is  abandoned  in  some 
parts  of  the  United  States,  growth  will  spring  up  of  one  timber 
to  the  exclusion  of  other  kinds.  It  is  true,  also,  that  in  certain 
portions  of  Ohio  some  varieties  usurp  lands  which  have  been 
denuded.  The  sort  of  timber  thus  asserting  itself  seems  depend- 
ent to  a  considerable  extent  upon  the  geological  formation  of 
the  soil.  But  no  one  variety  can  monopolize  the  area  for  more 
than  a  few  years.  Others  will  crowd  in  to  do  their  part  in  restor- 
ing the  original  estate.  Trees  have  sprung  up  on  what  was  prai- 
rie land  when  Ohio  was  settled ;  hill-sides  once  in  cultivation  are 
covered  with  a  dense  growth  of  timber.  In  either  of  these  situ- 
ations, a  large  number  of  species  occurs.  These  facts  are  patent 
to  any  one  who  uses  his  eyes. 


124  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

TERRACES. 

By  overlooking  an  obvious  explanation  of  a  very  simple 
matter  which  has  no  bearing  upon  the  subject  anyway,  low  lands 
along  streams  are  offered  as  proof  of  the  great  age  of  earthworks. 

"  No  work  of  any  kind  has  been  found  occupying  the  first,  or  latest- 
formed  terrace.  This  terrace  alone,  except  at  periods  of  extraordinary 
freshets,  is  subject  to  overflow.  *  *  *  'pj^g  f^^^  ^j^at  none  of  the  an- 
cient works  occur  upon  it,  while  they  occur  indiscriminately  upon  all  the 
others,  bears  directly  upon  the  question  of  their  antiquity."  —  S.  &  D.,  10. 

"  There  is  no  good  reason  why  builders  should  have  avoided  erecting 
these  structures  on  the  lower  terraces,  unless  the  terrace  was  formed 
since  or  was  being  formed  about  the  time  the  Mound  Builders  took  their 
departure."  "The  streams  generally  show  four  successive  terraces,  which 
mark  four  distinct  areas  of  their  subsidence.  The  last,  upon  which  the 
works  do  not  occur,  must  have  been  the  longest  in  forming.  *  *  * 
This  geological  change  proves,  for  the  mounds,  a  very  great  antiquity." 
—  McLean,  135. 

Few  mounds  are  on  these  terraces,  precisely  because  they  are 
"subject  to  overflow" ;  still,  some  are  found  in  such  places.  The 
lowest  terraces  were  not  the  ''longest  in  forming".  Some  of 
them  are  of  very  recent  origin.  There  are  few  farm  houses  on 
the  low  terraces;  does  this  prove  ''a  very  great  antiquity"  for 
those  at  a  higher  elevation? 

Harrison  offers  an  explanation,  true  in  its  premises,  but  not 
necessarily  so  in  its  conclusion. 

"  To  the  question  of  the  cause  of  no  recent  vestige  of  settlements 
being  found  on  the  Ohio,  I  can  offer  only  a  conjecture.  Under  certain 
very  possible  conditions,  a  flood  might  produce  a  height  of  water  equal 
to  that  described  by  an  Indian  chief,  (to  which  he  said  he  was  an  eye  wit- 
ness,) to  General  Wilkinson,  at  Cincinnati,  in  the  fall  of  1792.  And 
which,  if  true,  must  have  been  several  feet,  (eight  or  ten,)  at  least,  higher 
than  that  of  1832.  The  occurrence  of  such  a  flood,  when  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio  were  occupied  by  numerous  Indian  towns  and  villages,  nearly  all 
of  which  must  have  been  swept  off,  was  well  calculated  to  determine  them 
to  a  removal,  not  only  from  actual  suffering,  but  from  the  suggestions  of 
superstition ;  an  occurrence  so  unusual  being  construed  into  a  warning 
from  heaven,  to  seek  a  residence  upon  the  smaller  streams.  Before  the 
remembrance  of  these  events  had  been  obliterated  by  time,  the  abandoned 
region  would  become  an  unusual  resort  for  game,  and  a  common  hunting 
ground  for  the  hostile  tribes  of  the  north  and  south,  and,  of  course,  an 
arena  for  battle.  Thus  it  remained  when  it  was  first  visited  by  the 
whites."  —  Harrison,  227,  condensed. 

"  In  the  year  1772,  'the  June  fresh,'  was  not  less  than  five  feet  higher 
than  the  flood  of  1832.     In  the  spring  of  1778  Wheeling  Island  was  over- 


Eifects  of  Floods.  125. 

flowed,  and  the  top  of  the  mound  only  in  sight.     This  fresh  was  less  by- 
seven  feet  than  that  of  1772."  —  Hildreth,  Floods,  51-2,  condensed. 

It  appears  from  this  that  not  only  is  the  Wheeling  Island 
mound  on  overflow  ground,  but  that  the  mound  itself  must  have 
been  almost,  or  entirely,  covered  in  1772. 

Valuable  evidence  on  this  point  is  furnished  by  Squier. 

"  Mr.  [De  Witt]  Clinton  was  unable  to  learn  of  the  occurrence  of 
any  remains  upon  the  first  terrace  back  from  the  lakes,  and,  upon  the  basis 
of  the  assumed  fact  of  their  non-existence,  advanced  the  opinion  that  the 
subsidence  of  the  lakes  and  the  formation  of  the  terrace  had  taken  place 
since  these  works  were  erected  —  a  chronological  period  which  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  measure  by  years.  This  deduction  has  been  received,  I  believe, 
by  every  succeeding  writer  upon  the  subject  of  our  antiquities,  without  any 
attempt  to  verify  the  assumption  upon  which  it  rests.  I  have,  however, 
found  that  the  works  occur  indiscriminately  upon  the  first  and  upon  the 
superior  terraces,  as  also  upon  the  islands  of  the  lakes  and  rivers."  — 
Squier,  N.  Y.,  10. 

The  erosion  of  their  banks  by  streams  is  cited  as  another 
"proof  of  age". 

"  There  are  several  Instances  of  streams  encroaching  upon  the  works 
and  carrying  portions  away.  In  order  to  get  an  approximate  length  of 
time  for  these  encroachments,  it  must  first  be  observed  how  many  inches 
the  stream  advanced  per  year,  and  even  then  it  would  be  impossible  to 
tell  how  far  the  works  were  originally  placed  from  the  stream."  — ■ 
McLean,  134. 

In  the  enclosure  just  east  of  Chillicothe  "the  large  circle  had 
been  encroached  upon,  and  the  terrace  near  which,  at  one  time,  was  the 
bed  of  Paint  Creek  was  broken  down,  leaving  the  wall  of  the  enclosure; 
but  the  creek  now  runs  more  than  a  mile  away."  —  Peet,  Amer.,  I,  63. 

What  he  calls  the  bed  of  Paint  Creek  is  a  "cut-ofif"  of  the 
Scioto,  which  could  have  been  torn  out  in  a  few  years  (see  page 
191).  Near  here,  the  river  has  moved  its  entire  channel,  in  low 
ground,  several  hundred  yards  since  the  town  was  settled. 

"  At  Piketon  the  stream  had  withdrawn  from  the  terrace  and  had 
left  an  old  channel,  with  ponds  full  of  water,  near  the  foot  of  the  covered 
way.  The  graded  way  which  ended  with  the  terrace  may,  at  one  time, 
have  been  used  as  a  canoe  landing  or  levee,  for  the  village  was  on  the 
summit  of  the  terrace.  At  Hopeton  the  walls  of  the  covered  way  termin- 
ate at  the  edge  of  the  terrace,  at  the  foot  of  which  it  is  evident  the  river 
once  had  its  course,  but  between  which  and  the  present  bed  of  the  stream 
a  broad  and  fertile  bottom  now  intervenes.  The  graded  way  at  Marietta 
ends  with  the  terrace,  but  there  is  now  an  interval  of  700  feet  between  the 
end  of  the  way  and  the  river  bank.  These  changes  indicate  great  an- 
tiquity in  the  works  of  Southern  Ohio."  —  Peet,  Amer.  I,  54. 


126  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  facts  are  as  stated ;  but  the  impHcation  that  any  connec- 
tion ever  existed  between  the  streams  and  the  artificial  works, 
other  than  exists  at  present,  is  wholly  incorrect.  The  river  at 
Piketon  is  several  hundred  yards  from  the  foot  of  the  graded  way 
(which  is  a  natural  formation)  and  fully  fifty  feet  lower.  At 
Hopetown  the  ''broad  and  fertile  bottom"  is  frequently  flooded. 
At  Marietta  the  river  is  as  close  to  the  graded  way  as  it  ever  was. 

"  These  streams  have  not  only  encroached  upon  the  works,  but  after- 
ward receded,  in  one  instance  [the  High  Bank  works],  to  a  distance  of 
three-fourths  of  a  mile."  —  McLean,  134. 

When  the  High  Bank  works  were  constructed,  the  river 
flowed  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  bluff  bounding  the  terrace  upon  the 
north  and  west  sides.  On  the  north,  the  channel  held  its  ancient 
way  until  within  the  past  few  years ;  but  it  has  now  shifted  more 
than  two  hundred  yards  and  soil  is  rapidly  accumulating  in  its 
former  course.  On  the  west  the  river  is  more  than  half  a  mile 
away.  Some  effort  has  been  made  to  estimate  the  length  of  time 
necessary  for  this  change.  Such  estimates  are  pure  guesses ;  one 
century  is  ample  for  the  work ;  twenty  may  have  passed  since  it 
began.  It  is  significant  that  no  large  timber  grows  on  the  made 
ground. 

As  the  amount  of  water  passing  down  our  rivers  is  practically 
uniform  from  year  to  year,  it  follows  that  as  a  stream  encroaches 
upon  one  side  it  must  build  up  the  shore  on  the  other ;  and  the  rate 
of  filling  is  dependent  upon  so  many  factors  that  nothing  short 
of  actual  observation  is  of  any  value  in  determining  the  time  that 
is  required  for  a  given  deviation.  There  are  places  along  the 
Scioto  and  Great  Miami  where  new  channels  have  been  cut 
through  cultivated  fields,  or  where  crops  are  raised  on  soil  depos- 
ited in  what  was  the  bed  of  the  river,  within  a  generation. 

Larger  streams  make  equally  rapid  changes.  In  1756  Fort 
Chartres,  Illinois,  was  half  a  mile  from  the  Mississippi.  Before 
1762  the  river  was  deflected  and  built  up  a  large  island  in  front 
of  the  fort.  In  that  year  the  island  could  be  reached  by  fording 
the  cut-ofif;  in  1770  the  channel  between  was  forty  feet  deep. 
About  1772  one  side  of  the  fort  was  undermined  by  the  river. 
In  1820  there  was  a  sand  bar  in  front  of  the  ruins,  nearly  half  a 
mile  in  width. —  Beck,  107,  condensed. 


Geological  Changes.  127 

THE    FORMATION    OF   TERRACES. 

As  there  has  been  some  misapprehension  in  regard  to  the 
terraces  or  "bottom  lands"  of  the  Ohio  river  and  its  tribu- 
taries, it  may  be  well  to  explain  here  how  they  are  formed. 

Prior  to  the  glacial  period,  the  Ohio  was  not  in  existence. 
Its  waters  as  far  down  as  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky,  which 
now  find  their  way  to  the  Mississippi  through  the  present  chan- 
nel, flowed  northward  across  Ohio.  When  the  ancient  drainage 
systems  were  blocked  by  the  advancing  ice-sheet,  a  lake  was 
formed  which  filled  all  the  old  valleys  and  rose  to  the  level  of 
a  slight  depression  at  Madison,  Indiana,  through  v^hich  it  found 
an  outlet.  Into  this  lake,  torrential  streams  from  the  melting 
ice  poured  a  vast  amount  of  drift.  Finally  the  glacier  was  a 
thing  of  the  past;  but  it  had  left  all  the  former  channels 
so  choked  with  the  sands  and  gravels  from  northern  regions 
as  to  prevent  the  streams  from  resuming  their  old  course,  and 
they  have  ever  since  made  their  escape  in  the  other  direction. 
Meantime,  the  material  carried  by  the  sw^ollen  waters  was  being 
distributed  with  tolerable  regularity  wherever  the  varying  cur- 
rents could  deposit  it,  and  in  the  end,  when  the  new  drainage 
lines  were  fairly  established,  the  spaces  between  the  hills  were 
filled  with  a  long,  narrow  plain  at  the  level  or  somewhat  above 
the  level,  of  the  highest  terrace  or  bottom  now  ^remaining. 
Through  this  plain,  the  streams  as  we  now  see  them,  began 
to  make  their  way. 

Minor  inequalities  of  surface  would,  at  first,  determine 
the  course  of  the  new  river.  For  a  certain  length  of  time  it 
would  follow  this  way,  and  tl^ere  would  be  formed  a  bed 
bounded  by  steep  banks,  while  the  land  on  either  side  extended 
with  a  practically  uniform  surface  to  the  bordering  hills.  The 
natural  tendency  of  running  water  to  deviate  from  a  direct 
course  would  soon  create  a  sinuous  channel,  impinging  against 
opposite  banks  at  irregular  intervals  ;  and  in  this  way  bends 
and  curves  would  be  established.  On  the  outer  or  convex 
side  of  each  curve  the  current,  having  greater  velocity,  under- 
mines the  bank  and  carries  away  the  material  composing  it  ; 
while  on  the  inner  side  is  deposited  the  sediment  resulting 
from  similar  erosion  farther  up  the  stream.  With  successive 
additions  these  deposits  are  built  up  into  sand  and  gravel  bars, 


128  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

over  which  the  water  rises  only  in  time  of  freshets;  with- 
increasing  deflection  of  the  river  they  gradually  widen  until 
portions  in  the  rear  are  so  far  from  the  main  channel  that  no 
coarse  detritus  reaches  them.  Finer  matter  left  by  the  quiet 
water  furnishes  a  foothold  for  vegetation  which  still  further 
impedes  the  flow,  thus  continually  increasing  the  depth  of  soil. 
Then  there  are  two  terraces  on  one  side  and  one  terrace  on  the 
other  side.  In  time,  the  river  begins  in  the  same  manner  to 
eat  away  the  bottom  which  it  has  formed,  and  to  build  another 
on  the  opposite  side  at  a  still  lower  grade.  This  process  is 
repeated  until  there  is  no  longer  sufficient  fall  for  the  stream  to 
scour  out  its  channel  deeper ;  when  this  stage  is  reached  the 
banks  on  both  sides  may  cave  in  and  be  carried  away,  but  ter- 
race-making is  at  an  end. 

A  river  may  continue  its  erosion  in  one  direction  until 
it  reaches  the  rocky  border  of  its  valley;  or  it  may  stop  at 
any  point  and  begin  to  work  its  way  back.  It  may  leave  a  por- 
tion of  the  original  deposits  undisturbed,  with  a  bluff  face  the 
entire  height.  It  may  carry  away  the  entire  mass  and  after- 
ward fill  its  place  with  similar  material  whose  surface  is  a  few 
feet,  or  many  feet,  lower  than  that  of  the  part  removed.  It 
may  leave  the  bottom  land  on  either  side  at  one  level  or  at 
several  levels  between  the  hill  and  the  bank  of  the  stream.  It 
may  leave  deposits  at  successive  levels  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
stream  at  the  same  point,  or  there  may  be  one  bank  on  one  side 
and  more  than  one  bank  on  the  other  side.  But,  unless  the 
action  of  the  main  current  is  modified  by  that  of  a  tributary, 
there  will  not  be  two  terraces  in  the  same  order  at  the  same 
height  above  the  water.  That  is  to  say,  the  third  terrace,  for 
instance,  on  one  side  will  not  measure  the  same  number  of 
feet  above  the  water  as  the  third  terrace  on  the  opposite  side. 
This  does  not  agree  with  the  generally  accepted  theory  that 
the  terraces  are  cut  out  in  orderly  succession,  from  level  bot- 
toms, l)y  intermittent  lowering  of  the  stream,  either  through 
sudden  slight  elevations  of  land  surface  or  equally  spasmodic 
subsidence  of  some  portion  of  the  river  bed ;  but  it  does  agree 
with -the  observed  facts.  Consequently,  any  calculations  as  to 
the  age  of  the  first  (lowest  or  latest  formed)  terrace,  based 
upon  geological  considerations,  are  apt  to  be  misleading.  The 
period  of  its  formation  depends  entirely  upon  the  fluctuations. 


Aboriginal  Occupation  of  Terraces.  129 

of  the  stream  and  the  degree  of  slope.  Places  exist  upon  the 
Ohio  where  the  last  work  of  this  sort  was  completed  many  cen- 
turies ago;  some  terraces  on  its  tributaries  are  still  in  the 
process  of  formation ;  and  there  are  terraces  on  the  Scioto, 
Miami,  and  other  streams,  which  in  the  course  of  ages  will 
be  carried  to  the  Gulf  and  replaced  by  others  at  a  considerably 
lower  level. 

But  whatever  be  the  age  of  the  lowest  terrace,  whether 
a  century  or  a  score  of  centuries,  it  has  no  connection  with 
the  age  of  mounds  which  are  not  built  upon  it.  Indians  —  or 
Mound  Builders  —  may  have  encamped  for  months  at  a  time 
on  the  banks  of  a  creek  or  river;  at  a  desirable  fishing  station 
they  may  even  have  piled  up  a  small  amount  of  earth  on 
which  to  raise  a  hut  or  a  wigwam  sufficiently  high  to  avoid 
the  mud  resulting  from  a  heavy  rainfall;  but  they  were  not 
so  stupid  as  to  erect  permanent  structures  of  either  wood  or 
earth  in  situations  from  which  they  would  be  driven  at  every 
flood  and  which  would  be  untenable  for  a  considerable  portion 
of  every  year. 

There  are  apparent  exceptions  to  this  statement.  Some 
mounds  stand  in  bottoms  subject  to  occasional  overflow;  and 
village-sites  are  common  on  river  banks  even  lower  than  those 
over  which  the  water  sometimes  rises.  But  in  the  former  case 
it  will  usually  be  found  that  no  higher  land  is  near,  unless  on 
the  hills  where  the  people  did  not  wish  to  go;  and  again,  the 
location  may  be  above  all  but  the  greatest  floods  which  come 
only  at  long  intervals,  so  that,  like  many  of  the  whites  who 
have  succeeded  them,  the  aborigines  would  believe  such  an 
exceptional  condition  of  affairs  would  probably  never  occur.  In 
seeking  a  location  for  a  village,  the  great  desiderata  are  wood 
and  water;  the  river  produced  both,  for  the  driftwood  along 
the  shores  was  always  abundant,  accessible,  thoroughly  sea- 
soned, and  needed  very  little  labor  to  prepare  it  for  use.  The 
soil  was  fertile  and  easily  tilled,  while  fish  were  to  be  caught 
in  plenty  almost  at  the  door.  In  view  of  such  advantages, 
the  natives  could  well  afford  to  be  routed  out  once  or  twice  in 
a  generation,  when  the  alternative  involved  more  labor  and  less, 
convenience. 


130  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

SURFACE   ACCUMULATION    AND   EROSION. 

Two  Other  standards  of  measurement  would  be  valuable 
aids  in  determining  the  age  of  prehistoric  earthworks,  if  we 
could  ensure  their  fixity;  both  are  subject  to  so  many  dis- 
turbing influences  whose  effects  can  not  be  calculated,  that  it 
is  unsafe  to  place  much  reliance  on  them.  One  of  these  is  the 
rate  at  which  soil  will  accumulate  on  level  ground,  where  there 
is  neither  wash  nor  overflow.  According  to  some  geologists 
this  amounts  to  about  three  inches  in  a  century.  Could  we  be 
sure  of  this  figure,  the  depth  of  village-sites  beneath  the  pres- 
ent surface  would  afford  a  clue  to  the  number  of  years  that 
have  elapsed  since  their  abandonment.  But  the  growth  of  veg- 
etation and  the  action  of  earthworms  are  uncertain,  the  amount 
of  detritus  carried  in  by  winds  may  either  exceed  or  fall  short 
of  the  amount  removed  by  the  same  agency,  and  no  balance 
can  be  struck. 

The  other  factor  is  the  rate  of  erosion  in  embankments 
or  other  works,  on  a  sloping  surface.  We  have  to  consider 
here  the  amount  of  rainfall,  the  degree  of  slope,  the  drainage 
area,  the  size  of  the  outlet,  the  amount  and  kind  of  vegetation, 
and  the  character  of  the  soil.  It  is  like  attempting  to  solve 
an  equation  when  some  of  the  letters  are  missing.  It  may  be 
said,  however,  that  in  all  cases  where  breaks  due  to  atmos- 
pheric influences  occur  in  earthworks,  the  volume  of  material 
thus  removed  is  remarkably  small.  At  the  largest  ravine  cut- 
ting through  the  northern  wall  of  the  Hopewell  enclosure  in 
Ross  county,  not  more  than  a  dozen  wagon  loads  of  earth 
would  be  required  to  fill  the  broken  space  to  the  height  and 
breadth  of  the  wall  on  either  slope. 

At  Fort  Ancient  ''the  embankment  may  be  traced  to 
within  three  to  eight  feet  of  the  stream"  in  the  minor  ravines. 
"  Hence  it  appears  that  not  more  than  three  feet  of  that  exca- 
vation has  been  done  since  the  construction  of  the  earthworks." 
This  statement,  which  is  a  little  obscure,  seems  to  imply  a  belief 
on  the  part  of  the  authors  that  the  embankment  was  carried 
continuously  across  the  little  ravines,  and  that  the  figures  given 
are  a  measure  of  the  amount  of  the  erosion  since  it  was  made. 
But  the  wall  may  have  stopped  at  first  just  where  the  ends 
are  now  seen  ;    for  if  it  were  made  without  a  break  the  portion 


Classification  of  Skulls.  131 

in  the  ravine  would  go  out  with  the  first  heavy  rain  unless 
:stayed  with  timbers  ;  and  if  sufficiently  heavy  timbers  were 
used  no  further  defensive  work  would  be  necessary.  Nor  is 
there  any  authority  for  assuming  that  all  the  erosion  indicated 
at  the  bottom  of  the  ravine  has  taken  place  since  the  wall  was 
built;  the  gulley  may  have  been  there  before.  It  would  not 
take  a  great  while  for  a  ditch  to  increase  three  feet  in  depth 
on  a  hill-side;  yet  on  the  same  page  they  estimate  the  age  of 
the  work  at  ''thousands  of  years." —  S.  &  D.,  19. 

To  prevent  an  assumption  of  certainty  concerning  such  cal- 
<:ulations,  Fort  Miami  offers  two  ravines.  One  of  these  on 
the  north  side  of  the  fort  receives  the  drainage  of  a  compara- 
tively limited  area  ;  the  cut  here  is  deep  and  wide.  On  the 
south  side  there  is  a  much  smaller  break  in  the  wall,  through 
which  passes  the  drainage  from  a  considerably  larger  area. 

F.  —  PHYSICAL  STRUCTURE. 

CRANIA. 

A  vast  amount  of  time  and  labor  has  been  devoted  to  meas- 
urements of  skeletons  with  the  hope  that  some  relation  of  parts 
may  be  discovered  which  will  serve  as  a  basis  for  classification 
into  types  and  a  guide  to  tribal  connections.  Such  investigations 
are  especially  directed  to  the  skull ;  various  tables  are  formulated, 
differing  in  minor  particulars,  but  all  having  in  view  the  idea  that 
development  of  the  human  cranium  is  somewhat  like  the  crystalli- 
zation of  minerals — each  class  possessing  a  type  of  its  own  from 
which  there  may  be  slight  deviations  but  which,  on  the  whole,  is 
sufficiently  marked  and  distinct  to  dissociate  it  from  all  others. 

The  first,  and  principal,  measurement  of  the  skull  is  the 
''cephalic  index" ;  this  is  obtained  by  dividing  the  breadth  of  the 
skull  by  its  length  and  multiplying  the  quotient  by  100.  When 
the  result  is  below  a  certain  number,  the  cranium  is  called  "doli- 
chocephalic", meaning  "long-head" ;  when  above  a  certain  other 
number,  it  is  termed  "brachycephalic"  or  "short-head" ;  while 
one  falling  between  these  two  is  classed  as  mesaticephalic,  or 
"middle-head".  These  are  the  three  grand  divisions ;  within  them 
fall  sub-divisions  governed  by  other  proportions.  Each  is 
assumed  to  belong  to  a  distinct  type  of  humanity ;  so  that  when  a 
skull  is  properly  indexed  something  can  at  once  be  inferred  as  to 
the  racial  affinitv  of  the  individual  of  whom  it  once  formed  a  part. 


132  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

It  is  a  beautiful  scheme ;  the  only  trouble  with  it  is  that  no 
one  has  ever  been  able  to  reduce  it  to  a  system  from  which  it  is 
possible  to  obtain  any  certain  or  definite  results.  When  this 
difficulty  is  overcome  —  no  special  progress  appears  yet  to  have 
been  made  in  that  direction  —  we  may  look  for  the  announcement 
of  some  interesting  discoveries.  As  the  matter  now  stands,  very 
little  dependence  can  be  placed  in  conclusions  drawn  from  the 
use  of  such  tables ;  there  is  a  general  resemblance  among  skulls  of 
races  who  are  somewhat  homogeneous,  so  that  we  may  with  some 
assurance  of  correctness  say  one  belongs  to  the  Caucasian,  or 
Indian,  or  Negro,  or  some  other  race,  or  even,  in  a  few  instances 
to  some  particular  branch  of  a  race ;  but  it  does  not  seem  safe,  now, 
to  go  much  further.  Even  this  comprehensive  statement  must 
be  based,  not  upon  a  few  linear  measurements,  but  upon  the  gen- 
eral appearance  of  the  entire  cranium.  When  we  proceed  to 
details,  we  are  only  applying  the  principals  of  phrenology. 

If  a  single  tribe  should  have  the  sole  occupancy  of  a  country 
for  centuries,  under  conditions  of  life  remaining  practically 
unchanged  during  that  time,  the  monotonous  uniformity  of  their 
method  of  living  might  result  in  the  evolution  of  a  well  defined 
type  of  cranium  by  which  they  could  readily  be  distinguished 
from  all  other  races.  But  with  a  roving  people,  like  most  Ameri- 
can Indians,  who  must  adapt  themselves  to  continual  changes  of 
topography  and  climate,  who  form  confederations  and  adopt  cap- 
tives, the  intermingling  of  dififerent  strains  will  be  attended  with 
a  diversity  of  physical  structure  affecting  not  the  head  alone  but 
the  entire  frame  as  well.  At  any  rate  skulls  of  almost  every  nor- 
mal shape  and  size  have  been  taken  from  a  single  mound,  or 
from  the  same  cemetery,  mingled  in  a  way  to  indicate  that  those 
who  interred  the  bodies  had  no  thought  of  making  any  distinc- 
tion of  caste.  In  such  cases,  any  attempt  at  classification  by 
drawing  a  hard  and  fast  line  between  the  "long-heads"  and  the 
*'short-heads"labeling  one  division  "ruling  class"  and  the  other 
"slaves  and  captives"  is,  to  say  the  least,  very  unsatisfactory. 
And  it  does  not  help  the  matter  to  establish  a  third  division  be- 
tween these,  and  call  it  "progeny  of  the  two  races." 

Professor  Putnam  clearly  presents  his  ideas  in  regard  to  the 
distribution  of  the  two  principal  divisions  in  North  America,  the 
intermingling  of  types  through  migrations,  and  the  resultant  for- 
mation of  intermediate  varieties. 


Long-heads  and  Short-heads.  133 

"We  find  that  the  prevailing  form  of  the  skulls  from  the  older 
fburial  places  across  the  northern  portions  of  the  continent,  from  the 
Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  is  of  the  long,  narrow  type  (dolichocephalic)  ,  while 
the  skulls  of  the  old  peoples  of  Central  America,  Mexico,  and  the  south- 
western and  southern  portions  of  the  United  States  are  principally  of  the 
short,  broad  type  (brachycephalic).  Following  the  distribution  of  long 
and  short  skulls  as  they  are  now  found  in  burial  places,  it  is  evident 
that  the  two  forms  have  spread  in  certain  directions  over  North  America ; 
the  short  or  broad-headed  race  of  the  south  spreading  out  toward  the 
east  and  northeast,  while  the  long  or  narrow-headed  race  of  the  north 
has  sent  its  branches  southward  down  both  coasts,  and  toward  the 
interior  by  many  lines  from  the  north  as  well  as  from  the  east  and  west. 
The  two  races  have  passed  each  other  here  and  there.  In  other  places 
they  have  met;  and  probably  nowhere  is  there  more  marked  evidence  of 
this  meeting  than  in  the  Ohio  valley,  where  have  been  found  burial  places 
and  sepulchral  mounds  of  different  kinds  and  of  different  times.  This 
variation  in  the  character  of  the  burial-places  agrees  with  the  skulls  found 
in  them.  Some  contained  the  brachycephalic  type  alone;  in  others,  both 
brachycephalic  and  dolichocephalic  forms  were  found  with  many  of  the 
mesaticephalic  or  intermediate  form ;  indicating  a  mixture  of  the  two 
principal  types,  which  seem  to  be  of  different  races  or  subraces."  —  Put- 
nam, Ohio. 

His  interesting  conclusions  in  regard  to  the  aboriginal  popu- 
lation, are  presented  here  in  a  much  condensed  form: 

"  We  seem  compelled  to  admit  the  following  groups  of  North  Amer- 
icans. The  Preglacial  or  Interglacial  race,  or  Paleolithic  man.  The 
"Eskimo."  The  Dolichocephali.  The  Brachycephali.  These  groups,  call 
them  by  what  name  we  will,  are  the  principal  ones  in  North  America. 
From  them  are  composed  the  North  Americans,  or,  as  they  are  called, 
the  Indians,  with  all  their  resemblances  and  differences."  —  Putnam,  Ohio. 

Whittlesey's  view  is  of  the  same  general  nature  as  that  of 
Putnam,  though  he  differs  from  the  latter  somewhat  as  to  the 
method  in  which  the  association  of  the  last  two  races  was  brought 
about. 

"  Colonel  Whittlesey's  sagacious  generalizations  concerning  the 
advance  of  a  more  civilized  race  from  the  south  as  far  as  southern  Ohio, 
and  their  final  expulsion  by  more  warlike  tribes  from  the  lake  region, 
are  fully  confirmed  by  recent  investigations.  The  Indians  of  Mexico  and 
South  America  belong  to  what  is  called  a  'short-headed'  race,  i.  e.,  the 
width  of  their  skulls  being  more  than  three-fourths  of  their  length, 
whereas  the  northern  Indians  are  all  '  long-headed  '.  Now  out  of  about 
1,400  skulls  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Madisonville  near  Cincinnati,  more 
than  1,200  belonged  to  a  short-headed  race,  thus  connecting  them  with 
southern  tribes.  Going  further  back  it  seems  probable  that  the  southern 
tribes  reached  America  across  the  Pacific  from  southern  Asia,  while  the 
■northern  tribes  came  via  Alaska  from  northern  Asia."  —  Howe,  I,  234. 


134  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Mooreliead  remarks  of  some  skulls  which  he  exhumed :  — 

''In  some  of  the  large  mounds,  especially  those  of  Hopewell's  earth- 
work in  the  Scioto  valley,  and  mounds  of  the  Little  Miami  valley,  the, 
crania  are  remarkable  for  their  great  thickness  and  low,  retreating,  narrow 
foreheads,   with   heavy   superciliary  ridges."  —  Moorehead,   240. 

On  page  217  he  gives  a  figure  of  a  skull ;  it  shows  a  common, 
mistake  in  drawing  or  photographing  whereby  an  apparent  "low 
forehead"  is  created  when  in  reality  the  cranium  is  well  formed, 
and  has  a  full  forehead.  The  error  consists  in  resting  the  skull 
on  the  lower  jaw,  thus  allowing  its  base  to  drop  to  the  level  of 
the  chin;  the  specimen  is  thereby  tilted  backward  until  the  vertex 
is  considerably  to  the  rear  of  where  it  properly  belongs.  On 
page  222  another  cut  illustrates  the  manner  in  which  the  same 
erroneous  impression  may  be  given  with  a  fragmentary  cranium. 
Instead  of  so  placing  the  fragment  that  it  would  hold  the  posi- 
tion belonging  to  it  in  life,  the  fractured  edges,  front  and  rear, 
are  on  a  practically  horizontal  line;  in  this  way  the  ''flat  head'^ 
observed  is  determined  by  the  relative  loss  of  the  bone  from  the 
occiput.  Most  works  on  anthropology  contain  such  misleading 
illustrations ;  and  some  very  elaborate  discussions  are  based  on 
an  artist's  oversight  instead  of,  as  the  writers  suppose,  on  the 
conformation  of  a  prehistoric  skull. 

"The  strong  mixture  of  the  two  races,  brachycephalic  and  dol- 
ichocephalic, as  exhibited  in  several  of  the  mounds  on  Mr.  Hopewell's, 
farm,  was  to  us  at  first  inexplicable.  But  as  excavations  brought  to  light 
new  finds  we  could  come  to  but  one  conclusion,  both  from  an  inspection 
of  the  crania  and  the  implements.  The  short-headed  race,  predominating 
to  such  an  extent  in  the  river  valleys  of  Tennessee,  also  controlled  the 
Scioto  and  Miami  settlements.  .  The  few  long-heads  present  were  un- 
doubtedly subservient  to  the  short-heads."  He  pronounces  "the  osteo- 
logical  affinities  of  the  people"  (the  aborigines  of  southern  Ohio)  as 
"resembling  those  of  the  stone-grave  people  of  Tennessee  so  closely  that 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  builders  of  Hopewell's  earthwork  are  but 
an  advanced  offshoot  to  the  north  of  these  people."  —  Moorehead,  195 
and  198. 

This  is  followed  by  two  pages  of  fanciful  theorizing  by  the 
author.  In  other  portions  of  his  ''Primitive  Man"  there 
is  a  large  amount  of  pure,  unfounded  guess-work  in  regard  to 
"long-heads"  and  "short-heads,"  who  roamed  about  at  random,, 
making  settlements  here,  forays  there,  conquering  and  enslaving 
or  stoically  resisting  elsewhere;  all  of  which  has  no  other  founda- 
tion than  the  discovery  of  skulls  differing  somewhat  from  each- 


The  Squier  and  Davis  Skull  135 

other  in  form,  and  concerning  which  variations  no  scientific  or 
satisfactory  basis  has  as  yet  been  estabhshed. 

No  one  at  all  competent  to  render  a  decision  in  this  matter 
has  yet  made  an  examination  of  the  cranial  remains  exhumed 
from  the  mounds  in  Ohio ;  until  this  is  done,  and  until  anatomists 
can  agree  among  themselves  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  various 
measurements,  it  will  be  as  well  not  to  attempt  any  race  distinc- 
tions based  on  such  sciolistic  observation. 

Even  now,  however,  there  is  no  excuse  for  so  silly  a  state- 
ment as  that  of  Larkin. 

"  The  head  of  the  Indian  *  ^  *  indicates  the  cruel  savage  that 
he  is.  The  Mound  Builder  has  a  head  that  will  compare  favorably  with 
that  of  the  most  intellectual  people  now  living."  —  Larkin,  2. 

But  this  is  no  worse  than  a  diagram  by  Nadaillac.  In  trying 
to  show  ''the  degraded  type"  of  a  skull  of  ordinary  Indian  form, 
by  means  of  comparison  with  a  ''European  skull",  he  represents 
the  latter  as  having  the  form  of  an  arc  of  a  circle  terminating  at 
each  end  in  radii  of  a  somewhat  larger  circle  —  a  shape  unlike 
that  of  any  skull  which  ever  existed. —  Nadaillac,  483. 

The  skull  figured  by  Squier  and  Davis  has  passed  under  the 
inspection  of  various  anatomists  and  archaeologists,  who  have 
given  it  careful  study.     Foster  says  of  it :  — 

"  Squier  and  Davis  profess  to  have  collected  but  one  skull  which 
they  regarded  as  authentic  of  the  Mound  Builders,  but  any  comparative 
anatomist,  on  referring  to  their  plate,  will  instantly  recognize  it  as  of  the 
Indian  type.  Dr.  Morton  justly  describes  it  as  'perhaps  the  most 
admirably  formed  head  of  the  American  race  hitherto  discovered.'  Com- 
paring this  skull  with  those  which  I  have  figured,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
Scioto  skull  differs  widely  from  the  true  Mound  Builder's  skull  in  its  most 
characteristic  features."  —  Foster,  291. 

The  importance  of  this  cranium  justifies  a  detailed  statement 
of  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  found.  The  report  of  the 
explorers  is,  in  substance,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  only  skull  incontestably  belonging  to  an  individual  of  that 
race  [the  Mound  Builders]  which  has  been  recovered  entire,  or  suffi- 
ciently well  preserved  to  be  of  value  for  purposes  of  comparison,  was 
taken  from  the  hill-mound  *  *  *  situated  upon  the  summit  of  a 
high  hill,  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Scioto  about  four  miles  below 
the  city  of  Chillicothe.  *  *  *  It  is  about  eight  feet  high  by  forty-five 
or  fifty  feet  base.  The  superstructure  is  a-  tough  yellow  clay,  which  at 
the  depth  of  three  feet  is  intermixed  with  large,   rough  stones.     *     *     * 


136  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

These  stones  rest  upon  a  dry  carbonaceous  deposit  of  burned  earth  and 
small  stones,  of  a  dark  black  color,  and  much  compacted.  This  deposk 
is  about  two  feet  in  thickness  at  the  centre,  and  rests  upon  the  original 
soil.  In  excavating  the  mound,  a  large  plate  of  mica  was  discovered  placed 
upon  the  stones,  at  the  point  indicated  by  the  letter  a  in  the  section. 
Immediately  underneath  this  plate  of  mica  and  in  the  centre  of  the  burned 
deposit,  was  found  the  skull  *  *  *  resting  upon .  its  face.  The 
lower  jaw,  as  indeed  the  entire  skeleton,  excepting  the  clavicle,  a  few 
cervical  vertebrae,  and  some  of  the  bones  of  the  feet,  .all  of  which  were 
huddled  around  the  skull,  were  wanting.  No  relics  were  found  with 
the  bones,  except  a  few  shells  of  the  fresh-water  mollusks  from  the 
neighboring  river. 

"  From  the  entire  singularity  of  the  burial  it  might  be  inferred  that 
the  deposit  was  a  comparatively  recent  one ;  but  the  fact  that  the  various 
layers  of  carbonaceous  earth,  stones,  and  clay  were  entirely  undisturbed, 
and  in  no  degree  intermixed,  settles  the  question  beyond  doubt,  that  the 
skull  was  placed  where  it  was  found  at  the  time  of  the  construction  of  the 
mound.  Either,  therefore,  we  must  admit  that  the  skull  is  a  genuine 
relic  of  the  Mound  Builders  proper,  or  assume  the  improbable  alter- 
native that  the  mound  in  question  does  not  belong  to  the  grand  system 
of  earthworks  of  which  we  have  been  treating. 

"The  skull  is  wonderfully  well  preserved,  unaccountably  so,  unless 
the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  found  may  be  regarded  as  most 
favorable  to  such  a  result.  The  imperviousness  of  the  mound  to  water 
from  the  nature  of  the  material  composing  it,  and  its  position  on  the 
summit  of  an  eminence  subsiding  in  every  direction  from  its  base,  are 
circumstances  which,  joined  to  the  antiseptic  qualities  of  the  carbonaceous 
deposit  enveloping  the  skull,  may  satisfactorily  account  for  its  excellent 
preservation.     *     *    * 

"The  vertical  occiput,  the  prominent  vertex,  and  the  great  inter- 
parietal diameter,  are,  according  to  Dr.  Morton,  features  characteristic 
of  the  American  race,  but  more  particularly  of  the  family  which  he 
denominates  the  Toltecan,  and  of  which  the  Peruvian  head  may  be  taken 
as  the  type.  [It]  exhibits  in  a  marked  degree,  the  cranial  characteristics 
of  the  American  race,  of  which  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  perfect  type."  — 
S.  &  D.,  289. 

The  mound  in  question  is  number  8  of  figure  23.  It  is 
shown  in  figure  4.  A  section  shown  in  figure  5  is  reproduced 
from  (S.  &  D.,  fig.  199).  The  skull  is  represented  in  figures 
6  and  7  (S.  &  D.,  Plates  XLVII  and  XLVIII). 

If  this  is  an  "Indian"  skull,  then  it  is  plain  that  one  "Indian", 
at  least,  was  buried  by  Mound  Builders  in  their  customary  fash- 
ion. 

Foster  evidently  deems  himself  competent  to  decide  sponta- 
neously what  skull  is  to  be  called  "Mound  Builder"  and  what 


Mound  Builders'  Skulls. 


137 


138 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  5  —  Section  of  Mound  8. 


Figure  6  —  Profile  of  Skull  from  Mound  8. 


Mound  Builders'  Skulls. 


Figure  7  —  Front  and  Top   \ie\vs  of  Skull  from  Mound  b'. 


140  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"Indian".     He    describes    skulls    from    Chicago,    Merom,    and 
Dubuque,  of  which  he  says  :  — 

"  Without  doubt  they  are  the  authentic  skulls  of  the  Mound  Builders." 
The  first  are  from  mounds  only  two  and  a  half  feet  high  and  the  last 
from  mounds  which  "  are  by  no  means  conspicuous  in  size  and  are  desti- 
tute of  the,  long  lines  of  circumvallation  which  so  often  invest  those  of 
the  Ohio  Valley."  One  "was  exhumed  from  a  mound  about  twelve  feet 
high  at  Dunleith  [opposite  Dubuque].  The  corpse  was  buried  about  two 
feet  below  the  surface,  and  was  covered  with  wood  and  stone;  *  *  * 
this  skull  is  one  of  the  most  anomalous  ever  found.  *  *  *  j^  ]^as  a 
marked  resemblance  in  its  contour  to  that  from     *     *     *     near  Chicago." 

It  is  evident  these  are  modern  Indians,  not  connected  in  any 
way  with  the  Ohio  Mound  Builders.  Yet,  because  the  three 
skulls  from  near  Merom,  Indiana,  have  a  cephalic  index  of  73,  y^, 
and  74,  respectively,  Foster  says, 

"  I  think  we  are  justified  in  drawing  the  conclusion  that  the  Mound 
Builders  were  not  the  ancestors  of  the  North  American  Indian."  From 
them  he  also  deduces  "  the  former  existence  on  this  continent  of  an  an- 
omalous race,  characterized  by  a  remarkably  depressed  forehead,  *  *  * 
and  subsequent  discoveries  which  have  been  made  but  confirm  me  in  the 
views  originally  entertained  as  to  the  low  type  of  the  Mound  Builders' 
skulls."  "  Thus  far  but  few  authentic  Mound  Builders'  skulls  have  been 
exhumed,  and  they  indicate  that  that  race  must  have  ranked  intellectually 
below  the  lowest  types  of  Australia  and  New  Caledonia."  "All  the  speci- 
mens indicate  a  low  intellectual  organization,  little  removed  from  that  of 
the  idiot." 

The  shape  of  these  Merom  skulls  furnishes  him  grounds 
for  asserting  that  "  with  a  single  exception,  in  the  figures  here- 
tofore given  of  the  Mound-builders'  skulls,  I  fail  to  recognize 
the  typical  characters."  He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  claim,  in 
effect,  that  the  largest  mound  in  the  Ohio  Valley  is  of  Indian 
origin  ;  for  he  says  "  The  skull  from  the  Grave  Creek  mound, 
West  Virginia,  figured  by  Morton  and  reproduced  in  School- 
craft's works,  is  of  the  Indian  type."  Recognizing  his  incon- 
sistent attitude  in  attributing  mounds  to  Indians,  and  calling 
the  Mound  Builders  Indians,  while  still  maintaining  the  idea 
of  a  broad  gulf  between  the  two,  he  defends  his  position  by  a 
quotation  from  Dr.  Lapham :  — 

"  It  seems  quite  probable  that  men  with  skulls  of  this  low  grade  were 
the  most  ancient  upon  this  continent ;  that  they  were  the  first  to  heap  up 
those  curiously-shaped  mounds  of  earth  which  now  so  much  puzzle  the  an- 
tiquary ;  that  they  were  gradually  superseded  and  crowded  out  by  a  su- 


No  Persistent  Type  of  Skull  141 

perior  race,  who  adopting  many  of  their  customs  continued  to  build 
mounds  and  to  bury  their  dead  in  mounds  already  built.  Hence  we  find 
Mound  Euilders  with  skulls  of  the  ancient  form,  associated  with  others 
of  more  modern  type.  The  discovery  of  these  skulls  with  characteristics 
so  much  like  those  of  the  most  ancient  of  prehistoric  types  of  Europe, 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  if  America  was  peopled  by  emigration  from  the 
old  world,  that  event  must  have  taken  place  at  a  very  early  time — far 
back  of  any  of  which  we  have  record."  —  Foster,  between  275  and  306. 

Force  neatly  disposes  of  Foster's  entire  discussion  in  a 
single  sentence: 

"  Efforts  have  been  made  recently  to  find  some  peculiarity  in  the 
crania  of  the  Mound  Builders.  The  late  Dr.  Foster  declared  in  his  '  Pre- 
historic Races  of  the  United  States,'  that  he  had  discovered  the  type  of 
the  Mound  Builders'  skull,  and  that  it  was  a  degraded  type.  Dr.  Foster's 
argument  is  very  good  except  that  he  failed  in  the  first  step;  he  failed 
to  get  crania  of  the  Mound  Builders."  —  Force,  62. 

Through  a  study  of  Dr.  Wilson's  measurements,  it  is 
revealed  to  Short  that  no  warrant  is  found  for  the  division  into 
"  long-heads  "  and  "  short-heads  ".     He  perceives  that 

"  the  type  of  skull  among  the  American  aborigines,  ancient  or  modern,  v/as 
in  no  sense  constant,  since  among  the  same  tribes  long  and  short  skulls 
occur  in  almost  equal  numbers.  This  fact  is  especially  true  among  the 
savage  Indians.  —  Short,  164. 

But  in  attempting  to  present  an  epitome  of  the  various 
theories,  he  loses  his  way  and  leaves  the  whole  question  in  a 
muddle. —  Short,  chapter  IV. 

.   Nadaillac  accurately   sums  up  the  situation,  though  with- 
out any  comment  as  to  its  bearing  or  meaning. 

"  Though  most  of  the  skulls  which  can  be  attributed  with  any  cer- 
tainty to  the  so-called  Mound  Builders  are  short  or  Brachycephalic, 
there  are  numerous  exceptions;  and  often  beneath  the  same  mound  have 
been  found  skulls  which  appear  to  date  from  the  same  period,  yet  which 
present  different  forms ;  numerous  excavations  have  established  similar 
facts  in  the  Old  World."  —  Nadaillac,  487. 

The  unsatisfactory  nature  of  such  classifications,  and  the 
dubious  quality  of  any  deductions  based  upon  cranial  measure- 
ments, have  impressed  themselves  on  more  than  one  careful 
investigator;  whose  conclusions,  fairly  represented  in  the  next 
quotations,  give  very  little  support  to  any  theory  based  upon 
such  data. 

"In  skulls,  however,  the  main  measures  are  the  length,  which  is 
compounded  of  a  half  dozen  elements  of  growth,   and  the  breadth  and 


142  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

height,  each  the  resultant  of  at  least  three  elements.  Two  skulls  may 
differ  altogether  in  their  proportions  and  forms,  and  yet  yield  identical 
measures  in  length,  breadth  and  height.  How  can  any  but  empirical  re- 
sults be  evolved   from   such  a   system  of   measurement   alone?" 

"  The  length  of  growth  of  each  plate  from  its  center  in  different  di- 
rections regulates  the  entire  form  of  the  skull." —  Petrie,  592. 

"In  the  examination  of  38  skulls  of  men,  the  cephalic  index  ranged 
from  69  to  86;  the  capacity  from  1220  to  1920.  In  29  skulls  of  women 
the  index  varied  from  68  to  82;  the  capacity  from  1182  to  1580.  I  am 
led  to  treat  this  entire  series  of  crania  as  having  belonged  to  one  race. 
From  such  figures  as  these,  craniologists  seek  to  establish  an  average 
which  shall  be  taken  as  the  type ;  and  yet  after  all  it  must  be  admitted  that 
in  point  of  fact,  so  far  as  this  collection  is  concerned,  the  typical  cranium, 
ar-  adduced  fiom  the  measurements,  has  no  real  existence.  In  the  crania 
from  the  stone  graves  of  Tennessee,  or  those  from  Greenland  there  runs 
through  each  series  a  certain  prevailing  form  which  is  at  once  recognized. 
Here,  however,  no  such  uniformity  exists.  The  crania  differ  among 
themselves  in  every  possible  way." —  Carr,  Crania,  condensed. 

"  The  classification  into  long  and  short  skulls  is  open  to  the  ob- 
jection that  it  forces  into  opposite  classes  crania  closely  related  to  each 
other.  In  proportion  as  arbitrary  divisions  are  increased  these  difficulties 
are  multiplied,  and  this  simple,  two-fold  classification  presents  the  fewest." 
—  Dr.  Meigs,  from  Short,  160,  condensed. 

"  From  an  old  and  well-filled  European  graveyard  may  be  selected 
specimens  of  klimocephalic  (slope  or  saddle  skull),  conocephalic  (cone- 
skull),  brachycephalic  (short  skull),  dolichocephalic  (long  skull),  platy- 
cephalic (flat  skull),  leptocephalic  (slim  skull),  and  other  forms  of  crania 
equally  worthy  of  penta-  or  hexa-syllabic  Greek  epithets." —  Owen,  quoted 
by   Short,    160. 

JAWS,    TEETH,    AND   LIMBS. 

Various  other  portions  of  the  frame-work  are  studied,  with 
conflicting  results.  It  is  a  very  common  newspaper  statement 
that  a  Mound  Builder  has  been  dug  up  somewhere  "  whose 
jawbone  will  slip  over  that  of  a  large  man."  Sometimes  the 
man  elevates  the  marvelous  into  the  miraculous  by  having  a 
growth  of  "remarkably  heavy  whiskers." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  procure  a  Mound  Builder  in  order 
to  perform  this  feat  ;  the  phenomenon  is  equally  apparent  with 
any  other  full  grown  human  jaw.  It  may  be  observed,  also, 
in  curved  or  open-angle  objects  generally,  having  approximately 
the  same  form  and  thickness ;  as  spoons,  saucers,  miter-joints, 
gutter-spouts,  or  slices  of  melon  rinds.  The  significance  is  as 
great  in  one  case  as  in  the  others.    The  experimenter  has  failed 


Lazi's  and  TectJi  of  Moiind  Builders.  143 

to  perceive  a  considerable  interval  between  the  end,  or  angle, 
of  the  jaw  which  he  held  in  his  hand  and  the  one  with  which 
it  was  being  compared.  He  should  invert  the  former  and  apply 
it  to  the  lower  part  of  the  latter,  when  he  would  find  much 
less  difference  than  he  expected.  Even  should  the  Mound 
Builder's  jaw  exceed  in  size  that  of  the  modern  white  man,  it 
does  not  follow  that  his  entire  skeleton  was  on  a  corresponding 
scale.  Mastication  of  tough  or  coarse  food  promotes  growth  of 
the  necessary  organs ;  if  muscles  are  strong  and  large  the  bones 
to  which  they  are  attached  must  be  heavy  enough  to  meet  the 
strain  upon  them.  For  this  reason  both  maxillaries  may  attain 
proportions  much  in  excess  of  other  parts  of  the  skull. 

Frequently  this  development  affects  the  teeth  as  well;  the 
prominent  chin  brings  the  upper  and  lower  incisors  to  the 
same  vertical  line,  allowing  the  edges  to  impinge  instead  of  over- 
lapping, so  that  the  crowns  of  all  the  teeth  alike  wear  off  flat 
in  practically  the  same  plane.  Many  persons  who  have  noticed 
the  fact,  without  reflecting  upon  its  cause,  that  *'the  front  teeth 
are  flat  instead  of  sharp,"  deem  it  ample  evidence  that  the 
''Mound  Builders  had  double  teeth  all  around,  a  peculiarity 
which  distinguishes  them  from  all  other  known  races."  Others, 
better  informed,  suppose  the  amount  of  wear  thus  manifest  must 
indicate  the  attainment  of  an  extreme  age.  As  a  rule,  this  would 
be  true;  but  nothing  has  been  found  to  show  that  the  Mound 
Builders  had  any  methods  of  preparing  food  which  were  supe- 
rior to  those  in  vogue  among  later  Indians,  and  it  must  be 
conceded  that  a  diet  of  parched  corn,  bread  made  from  grains 
and  nuts  crushed  on  a  stone  mortar  or  with  a  stone  pestle  and 
baked  in  ashes,  meat  cooked  on  coals  with  a  liberal  admixture 
of  sand  and  silt  or  boiled  in  water  heated  by  dropping  red-hot 
stones  into  it  —  would  not  require  more  than  an  ordinary  life 
time  to  wear  out  the  hardest  teeth  that  can  develop  as  long  as 
lime  is  the  chief  component  in  them. 

"  Dr.  Sozinsky  says :  '  The  dental  profession  was  unknown  to  the 
Mound  Builders,  and  they  had  no  need  for  it ;  for  toothache  and  all 
such  diseases  were  troubles  with  which  they  were  but  very  little  ac- 
quainted.' Dr.  Farquharson  mentions  the  invariable  soundnesss  of  teeth 
in  the  remains  found  in  the  Davenport  mounds.  Dr.  Patrick  says :  '  It 
is  the  exception  to  find  a  sound  set  of  teeth.  *  *  *  The  marks  of 
alveolar  abscess  are  common ;  loss  of  molars  and  bicuspids  is  frequent, 
-with  complete  absorption  of  the  sockets.'     The  writer's  observations,  which 


144  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

have  been  limited,  accord  exactly  with  those  of  Dr.  Patrick."  —  Hender- 
son, 710. 

After  an  examination  of  several  hundred  skeletons  from 
mounds,  cemeteries,  and  village-site  burial  places,  I  can  add  my 
testimony,  also,  to  Dr.  Patrick's.  It  is  very  rare  indeed  to  find 
a  full  set  of  sound  teeth,  even  in  the  skull  of  a  young  person.. 
Often  all  the  teeth  are  present,  but  some,  perhaps  most,  are  dis- 
eased. Sometimes  the  teeth  remaining  are  sound,  but  the  num- 
ber is  deficient.  A  skeleton  under  the  center  of  a  mound  orig- 
inally over  twenty  feet  high,  near  Waverly,  had  only  twenty-two 
teeth  left,  and  thirteen  of  these  showed  marks  of  decay.  None 
of  them  were  much  worn. 

Of  the  other  bones,  the  humerus  and  tibia  have  been  seized 
upon  most  frequently  in  the  effort  to  advertise  the  Mound  Builder 
as  not  like  other  men.  In  the  former  there  is  sometimes  a  per- 
foration just  above  the  elbow.  The  size  varies  in  different  arms, 
but  it  is  seldom  as  much  as  half  an  inch  in  diameter.  It  is  usu- 
ally considered  a  peculiarity  confined  to  the  Mound  Builders,  a 
sort  of  racial  birth-mark ;  but  it  is  found  in  only  a  small  per  cent, 
of  their  skeletons,  and  occurs  in  other  races  as  well.  It  is  some- 
times spoken  of  as  an  indication  of  inferiority;  though  for  what 
reason,  and  what  sort  of  short-coming  is  meant,  does  not  appear. 

Dr.  Matthews  says  in  regard  to  this  anomaly, 

*'  We  believe  that  the  perforation  is  not  congenital  but  acquired ;  and 
that  it  has  no  connection  with  the  rank  a  people  may  hold  in  the  scale  of 
races,  but  is  the  result  of  some  mechanical  cause  connected  with  their 
occupations.  We  believe,  furthermore,  that  it  results  from  repeated  and 
forcible  extension  of  the  forearm,  in  which  the  summit  of  the  olecranon 
process  of  the  ulna  impinges  against  that  long,  thin  bony  partition  which 
ordinarily  separates  the  coronoid  from  the  olecranon  fosse  of  the  hu- 
merus. The  absorption  of  this  partition  naturally  follows."  —  Mat- 
thews, 218. 

There  is  often  observed  in  the  tibia  a  flattening  as  if  it  had 
been  pressed  from  each  side.  This  is  sometimes  so  pronounced 
that  the  thickness  from  side  to  side  is  less  than  half  the  measure 
from  front  to  back. 

"  That  flattening  of  the  leg-bone  or  tibia,  peculiar  to  prehistoric 
man  in  Europe,  and  perhaps  the  result  of  rugged  exertion  in  climbing 
mountains  and  traversing  the  country  with  that  rapidity  which  the  chase 
required  where  the  horse  is  wanting,  is  more  noticeable  in  the  remains 
of  some  of  the  Mound  Builders  than  in  any  other  people.     *     *     *     j^s 


Size  of  Mound  Builders.  145 

prominence  among  the  people  of  the  mounds  indicates  the  possession  of 
great  pedestrian  powers."  —  Short,   185. 

It  may  indicate  various  other  things  also: — 

"  Flattened  or  platycnemic  tibias  *  *  *  may  be  produced  in  any 
race  by  the  prolonged  use  of  certain  muscles,  either  in  constant  trotting, 
in  prolonged  squatting,  in  carrying  burdens,  or  in  the  use  of  peculiar 
foot  gear."  —  Mason,  Travel,  261. 

"  It  is  a  recognized  fact  that  the  flattened  tibia  does  not  occur  in 
childhood,  but  that  the  peculiarity  is  acquired  as  years  advance.  *  *  * 
The  flattening  is  entirely  due  to  [the]  inverse  action  of  the  tibialis  posticus 
[as]  exerted  when  the  foot  is  fixed  and  the  tibia  raised,  as  in  the  act  of 
rising  from  a  kneeling  position.  This  action  *  *  *  jg  produced  in 
the  upright  position;  more  still  in  walking,  above  all  up  inclined  planes 
both  in  mounting  and  descending  them,  and  infinitely  more  in  running  and 
jumping.  Lifting  and  carrying  heavy  loads  [is  also  an  important  cause.]'* 
—  Matthews,  223. 

The  confusion  prevailing  in  regard  to  these  minor  features 
extends  to  the  entire  skeleton.  For  nearly  a  century  there  has 
been  a  continual  reiteration  of  the  sentiment  that  Mound 
Builders  were  a  gigantic  race.  Almost  invariably  a  skeleton 
from  an  aboriginal  burial-place  is  that  of  a  "  very  tall "  person. 
If  figures  are  given,  it  is  usually  "  fully  seven  feet."  One  early 
author,  indeed,  claimed  just  the  opposite. 

"  The  skeletons  found  in  our  mounds  never  belonged  to  a  people 
like  our  Indians.  The  latter  are  a  tall,  rather  slender,  straight  limbed  peo- 
ple ;  the  former  were  short  and  thick.  They  were  rarely  over  five  feet  high, 
and  few  indeed  were  six.  Their  foreheads  were  low,  cheek  bones  rather 
high;  their  faces  were  rather  short  and  broad;  their  eyes  were  very  large; 
and  they  had  broad  chins."  —  Atwater,  209. 

But  the  common  belief  satisfies  more  people. 

The  skeletons  of  Mound  Builders  show  that,  as  a  race, 
there  was  no  practical  difference  between  them  and  any  other 
people  living  an  outdoor  life,  with  plenty  of  coarse  but  nutri- 
tious food.  Physically,  they  differed  very  little  from  our  pion- 
eers. The  shortest  skeleton  of  a  male  I  have  ever  found  in  a. 
mound  was  about  five  feet  in  length ;  the  longest  was  six  feet 
four  inches.  Owing  to  the  displacement  of  bones  exact  meas- 
urements are  seldom  possible;  but  there  need  be  no  error  of 
more  than  an  inch  in  most  cases.  The  bones  sometimes  show 
the  eiTects  of  rheumatism,  tubercular  trouble,  or  fractures.. 
10 


146  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

There  were,  of  course,  many  abnormal  features  of  physical 
structure  among  them;  it  would  be  strange  if  they  were  the 
only  people  on  earth  free  from  such  visitations.  But  owing 
to  the  hardships  and  exposure  incident  at  times  to  their  manner 
of  living,  not  many  of  the  weak,  sickly  or  deformed  would  sur- 
vive childhood. 

SUMMARY. 

The  foregoing  epitome  of  arguments  and  theories  shows 
that  a  search  for  the  origin  of  the  Mound  Builders  is  included 
within  and  forms  a  part  of  the  larger  inquiry  as  to  the  starting- 
point  of  the  American  Indians. 

If  any  race  had  its  beginning  on  the  Western  Continent, 
it  has  been  more  or  less  modified  in  physical  appearance,  men- 
tal traits,  character  and  disposition  by  accessions  from  the  Old 
World. 

All  known  facts  are  at  variance  with  the  belief  that  large 
additions  to  population  may  have  come  from  either  Europe  or 
Africa,  unless  in  times  so  remote  that  little  trace  now  survives 
of  influence  from  this  source. 

The  western  coast  may  have  been  accessible  to  primitive 
Asian  peoples  by  way  of  Behring  Strait;  along  ocean  currents; 
or  by  means  of  islands  in  the  Pacific,  now  submerged. 

Under  present  conditions  of  climate  no  extensive  travel  is 
practicable  across  the  Strait  except  for  Eskimo;  though  small 
parties  from  farther  south  may  sometimes  use  this  route. 

The  Japan  current  makes  it  possible,  now,  for  any  race  of 
Southeastern  Asia,  to  and  including  the  Malays,  to  reach  the 
Alaskan  coast. 

The  hypothesis  of  former  islands  in  the  equatorial  portion 
of  the  Pacific,  in  a  position  to  afford  any  assistance  to  a  move- 
ment in  this  direction,  involves  geological  changes  within  recent 
times,  of  which  we  have  no  evidence.  It  also  involves  a  reversal 
of  winds  and  ocean  currents  whose  trend  is  now  away  from  the 
American  coast  instead  of  toward  it. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  center  of  distribution  for  the 
first  Americans  was  that  part  of  the  Pacific  Coast  containing 
the  Gulf  of  Georgia  and  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River. 
From  here  they  spread  southward  along  the  coast  and  eastward 
.over  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


Distinctive  Stages  of  Progress.  147 

This  dispersion  dates  from  so  far  in  the  past  that  different 
tribes  of  Indians  now  vary  as  greatly  from  each  other  in  psy- 
chological attributes  as  do  different  nations  of  Asia  or  Europe. 

When  one  part  of  the  American  race  started  eastward  and 
the  other  southward  from  their  pristine  home,  the  separation 
was  final  There  is  no  good  reason  for  believing  a  general 
migration  ever  took  place  in  either  direction  across  the  territory 
intervening  between  those  who  reached  the  Ohio  valley  and 
those  who  established  themselves  in  New  Mexico  and  south- 
ward; though  traders  and  roving  bands  probably  created  and 
maintained  a  communication  along  this  line. 

In  many  particulars  the  Aztec  differed  from  the  Indian  of 
the  Pueblo ;  the  Mound  Builder,  apparently,  was  in  most  respects 
unlike  either ;  while  the  hunting  Indian  of  North  America  resem- 
bled none  of  the  three.  This  refers  to  their  manner  of  living 
and  their  social  customs.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  culture 
status  of  each  particular  group  developed  where  it  was  found, 
than  that  any  one  should  be  transformed  into  another  with  no 
intermediate  stages.  In  what  some  writers  designate  as  the 
"  architectural "  features  of  domestic  life,  the  inventive  power  or 
mechanical  ingenuity  of  the  "  wild  Indian  "  in  the  northern  states 
seemed  to  find  its  limit  in  the  use  of  skins  or  bark.  The  agri- 
cultural Indian  of  the  southern  states,  the  Iroquois,  and  the 
Mandan,  went  a  step  further  and  utilized  wood  in  the  construc- 
tion of  buildings.  The  last  also  plastered,  banked,  and  covered 
his  house  with  clay.  The  Mound  Builder  seems  not  to  have 
entirely  outgrown  this  stage,  although  making  use  of  earth  for 
various  purposes  besides  defense  or  burial.  The  Pueblo  Indian 
advanced  to  the  knowledge  and  use  of  adobe.  The  ancient  Mex- 
ican, mentally  the  foremost  of  North  American  people,  had 
learned  to  dress  stone.  None  of  them  had  reached  the  stage  of 
metal  working,  except  in  its  simplest  form  with  raw  material. 
Even  casting  was  an  unknown  art. 

Mounds  are  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  Europe  and  Asia ; 
some  of  them  are  older  than  the  dawn  of  history,  others  were 
con^Liuctcd  well  within  the  Christian  era.  Consequently,  no 
theory  of  descent  or  relationship  can  be  based  upon  them.  The 
custom  of  building  mounds  no  doubt  slowly  developed  among 
people  who  settled  in  districts  where  we  find  these  remains. 


148  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Nothing  yet  discovered  proves  for  any  of  the  Mound 
Builders  a  higher  intellectual  capacity  than  is,  or  was,  possessed 
by  more  than  one  well-known  tribe  of  American  Indians. 

There  were  several  mound-building  tribes  within  the  limits 
of  the  United  States,  who  may,  or  may  not,  have  been  related 
or  contemporaneous.  The  period  within  which  they  occupied 
this  territory  can  not  be  definitely  ascertained  by  any  of  the 
means  usually  employed  for  that  purpose. 

Nothing  is  to  be  learned  of  the  origin  of  the  American 
Indians,  or,  as  a  corollary,  of  the  Mound  Builders,  by  a  compar- 
ison of  their  customs  or  implements  with  those  of  foreign  peoples. 
Under  analogous  circumstances  races  or  tribes  of  a  like  degree  of 
culture,  though  unrelated,  and  ignorant  of  each  other's  existence, 
will  attain  similar  ends  by  practically  the  same  methods.  A 
resemblance  in  certain  typical  forms  of  mounds,  earthworks  or 
utensils,  does  not  prove  that  people  to  whom  they  belong  are 
related  or  even  that  communication  existed  between  them,  but 
may  mean  only  that  the  social  conditions  were  essentially  alike. 

The  habits  of  primitive  people  are  determined  by  their  envi- 
ronment. Barbarians  are  at  the  mercy  of  forces  with  which 
Nature  is  equipped,  and  the  means  by  which  they  must  protect 
themselves  are  about  the  same  everywhere.  The  ability  to- 
modify  materially  external  physical  conditions  must  precede  the 
beginning  of  the  lowest  forms  of  civilization.  The  divergent 
customs  which  so  sharply  mark  off  one  nation  from  another,  are 
due  simply  to  evolution  along  the  different  lines  on  which  they 
started  out. 

There  is  no  probability  that  any  manuscript,  inscriptions,  or 
other  records,  will  ever  be  disclosed,  which  will  aid  in  solving 
the  unanswered  questions  concerning  Mound  Builders.  Addi- 
tional information  is  to  be  gained,  if  at  all,  only  by  investigation 
of  their  tumuli,  cemeteries,  and  village-sites. 

The  discouraging  feature  presents  itself,  that  we  seem  unable 
to  find  anything  new,  or  essentially  different  from  what  we 
already  have.  Our  museums  are  filling  up  with  material  from 
all  these  sources ;  and  yet,  for  years,  the  accumulation  has  added 
nothing  in  the  way  of  real  information  to  what  we  already  knew. 


CHAPTER  V 


ENCLOSURES. 

The  Enclosures  of  Ohio.     Classification.     Theories  as  to  Use.    Methods 
of  Designing  and  Building.    Description. 

IN  OHIO,  enclosures  fall  into  three  different  classes  —  the 
heavy  embankments  of  earth  peculiar  to  the  level  or  low 
lands  of  the  southern  half  of  the  State ;  the  larger  hill-top 
fortifications  composed  of  earth  and  stone  in  varying  propor- 
tions, confined  mainly  to  the  same  locaHties  as  the  first;  and  the 
far  greater  number  resembling  in  some  respects  both  the  above, 
but  usually  smaller,  seldom  symmetrical,  evincing  less  care  in 
design  or  construction,  and  placed  on  high  or  low  ground  indiff- 
erently, sometimes  with  little  regard  to  topographical  features. 

The  fertile  valleys  of  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and  Little 
Miami,  seem  to  have  been  the  favorite  home  of  the  builders  of 
the  first  series.  With  the  exception  of  one  group  on  the  Kana- 
wha River,  and  two  others  in  Greenup  county,  Kentucky,  which 
are  really  a  part  of  the  Portsmouth  works,  all  the  principal  low 
land  enclosures  are  confined  to  the  vicinity  of  these  streams. 

Every  theory  yet  advanced  to  explain  the  purpose  for  which 
such  works  may  have  been  constructed,  is  largely  conjectural  and 
in  some  respect  or  other  inconsistent  with  facts  which  soon  become 
apparent  to  the  careful  observer.  At  an  early  day  all  were  called 
"forts"  alike;  but  when  closer  inspection  made  it  apparent  that 
many,  especially  the  larger  ones,  were  not  adapted  to  the  require- 
ments of  warfare,  it  was  assumed  that  they  were  intended  to 
cloak  the  performance  of  religious  ceremonies.  This  view  is 
clearly  set  forth  by  Squier  and  Davis :  — 

"  Reflection,  however,  has  tended  to  strengthen  the  opinion,  that 
those  works  not  manifestly  defensive  were  connected  with  the  supersti- 
tions of  the  builders,  and  that  all  the  enclosures  of  the  West  (except 
perhaps  some  of  the  petty  circles),  were  either  miHtary  or  religious  in 
their  origin.  [It  is  not]  improbable  that  a  few  were  designed  to  answer 
.a  double  purpose."  •  (149) 


150  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  If  we  are  right  in  the  assumption  that  [the  enclosures]  are  of  sacred' 
origin,  and  were  the  temples  and  consecrated  grounds  of  the  ancient  people, 
we  can,  from  their  number  and  extent,  form  some  estimate  of  the  de- 
votional fervor  or  superstitious  zeal  which  induced  their  erection,  and  the 
predominance  of  the  religious  sentiment  among  their  builders.  Their  mag- 
nitude is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  objection  that  can  be  urged  against  the 
purpose  here  assigned  them.  It  is  difficult  to  comprehend  the  existence  of 
religious  works,  extending,  with  their  attendant  avenues,  like  those  near 
Newark,  over  an  area  of  little  less  than  four  square  milesl  We  can  find 
their  parallels  only  in  the  great  temples  of  Abury  and  Stonehenge  in  En- 
gland, and  Carnac  in  Brittany,  and  must  associate  them  with  sun  worship 
and  its  kindred  superstitions."  —  S.  &  D.,  49. 

"  The  structure  not  less  than  the  form  and  position  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  earthworks  of  the  West,  and  especially  of  the  Scioto  Valley, 
render  it  clear  that  they  were  erected  for  other  than  defensive  purposes. 
*  *  *  When  we  find  an  enclosure  containing  a  number  of  mounds,  all 
of  which  it  is  capable  of  demonstration  were  religious  in  their  purposes, 
or  in  some  way  connected  with  the  superstitions  of  the  people  who  built 
them,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  the  enclosure  itself  was  also  deemed 
sacred,  and  thus  set  apart  as  '  tabooed  '  or  consecrated  ground,  especially 
where  it  is  obvious,  at  the  first  glance,  that  it  possesses  none  of  the  requi- 
sites of  a  military  work.  *  *  *  ^Ye  j^^^.g  reason  to  beheve  that  the 
religious  system  of  the  Mound  Builders,  like  that  of  the  Aztecs,  exercised 
among  them  a  great,  if  not  controlling  influence.  Their  government  may 
have  been,  for  aught  we  know,  a  government  of  the  priesthood;  one  in 
which  the  priestly  and  civil  functions  were  jointly  exercised,  and  one 
sufficiently  powerful  to  have  secured  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  it  did  in 
Mexico,  the  erection  of  many  of  those  vast  monuments,  which  for  ages 
will  continue  to  challenge  the  wonder  of  men.  There  may  have  been  cer- 
tain superstitious  ceremonies,  having  no  connection  with  the  purposes  of 
the  mounds,  carried  on  in  inclosures  specially  dedicated  to  them.  *  *  * 
It  is  a  conclusion  which  every  day's  investigation  and  observation  has 
tended  to  confirm  that  most,  perhaps  all,  of  the  earthworks  not  manifestly 
defensive  in  their  character,  were  in  some  way  connected  with  the  super- 
stitious rites  of  the  builders— though  in  what  precise  manner,  it  is,  and 
perhaps  ever  will  be,  impossible  satisfactorily  to  determine."  —  S.  &  D.,  46. 

"The  great  size  of  most  of  the  foregoing  structures  precludes  the 
idea  that  they  were  temples  in  the  general  acceptation  of  the  term.  As. 
has  already  been  intimated,  they  were  probably,  like  the  great  circles  ol 
England,  and  the  squares  of  India,  Peru,  and  Mexico,  the  sacred, 
enclosures,  within  which  were  erected  the  shrines  of  the  gods  of  the 
ancient  worship  and  the  altars  of  the  ancient  religion.  They  may  have 
embraced  consecrated  groves,  and  also,  as  they  did  in  Mexico,  the  res- 
idences of  the  ancient  priesthood.  *  *  *  Analogy  would  therefore- 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  structures  under  consideration,  or  at  least  ai 
large  portion  of  them,  were  nothing  more  than  sacred  enclosures.  We 
find  *  *  *  the  altars  upon  which  the  ancient  people  performed  their- 
sacrifices.     We  find  also  pyramidal  structures     *    *     *     which  correspond. 


Purpose  of  Large  Enclosures.  161 

entirely  with  those  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  except  that,  instead 
of  being  composed  of  stone,  they  were  constructed  of  earth,  and  instead 
of  broad  flights  of  steps,  have  graded  avenues  and  spiral  pathways  leading 
to  their  summits."  —  S.  &  D.,  102. 

Since  the  day  of  these  authors  much  has  been  written  to  the 
same  effect ;  but  nothing  has  been  added  to  their  argument,  nor 
a  scrap  of  evidence  adduced  in  its  favor  beyond  what  they  oft'ered, 
namely,  that  such  must  have  been  the  object  in  view,  because  we 
know  of  no  other  motive  which  would  have  led  to  the  construction 
of  these  works. 

But  no  explanation  has  ever  been  offered  as  to  the  character 
of  ceremonies  requiring  for  their  performance  areas  of  twenty 
or  thirty  acres,  or  even  more,  with  passage-ways  over  a  mile  in 
length,  all  concealed  from  prying  eyes  by  massive  walls  of  earth 
or  high  palisades.  The  most  primitive  races  practice  some  sort 
of  rites  and  make  sacrifices  of  personal  comfort,  through  a  sense 
of  duty  or  under  the  influence  of  spiritual  fear;  while  some  of 
the  greatest  architectural  achievements  of  our  race  owe  their  exist- 
ence to  the  same  feelings.  But  people  whose  constructive  power 
reaches  its  limit  in  piles  of  earth,  whether  symmetrical  or  not, 
could  scarcely  possess  so  comprehensive  and  connected  a  system 
of  religious  ideas  as  would  lead  to  the  creation  of  immense  and 
elaborate  works  for  their  observance,  to  the  exclusion  of  similar 
or  equal  structures  for  the  requirements  of  social  or  military 
needs. 

It  is  impossible  to  imagine  any  condition  of  life  that  would 
lead  people  to  enclose  areas  so  great  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  conceal  the  operations  of  one  part  of  the  populace  from  the 
remaining  portion;  or  to  conceive  of  what  use  the  walls  would 
be  if  all  should  take  part  in  the  exercises.  There  is  nothing  in 
our  knowledge  of  barbarous  races,  of  any  age  or  country,  to  jus- 
tify such  a  supposition.  True,  the  priests  of  most  religious  sys- 
tems in  ancient  times  concealed  parts  of  their  rites  from  the 
multitude;  but  it  is  absurd  to  cite  records  of  the  use  of  caves  or 
groves  for  this  purpose  in  support  of  a  theory  that  the  same  end 
could  be  attained  or  even  attempted  by  means  of  a  low  wall 
around  a  twenty  acre  field. 

Recognizing  this  difficulty,  some  authors  have  abandoned 
the  idea  of  a  religious  origin,  and  assigned  to  these  enclosures 
an  office  similar  to  the  Roman  circus,  considering  them  places 
where  persons  who  wished,  or  were  compelled,  to  entertain  the 


152  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

populace  with  games  or  feats  of  strength  and  valor,  would  have 
abundant  room  for  the  display  of  their  skill  and  prowess ;  the 
spectators  meanwhile  viewing  the  performance  from  seats  pro- 
vided for  them  along  the  top  of  the  wall.  This  is  giving  the 
Mound  Builder  credit  for  more  enterprise  and  public  spirit  than 
seems  warranted.  If  boundaries  were  needed,  they  could  be 
marked  off  by  lines;  and  the  hills  or  terrace-banks  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  any  of  these  works  overlook  level  tracts  as  well 
adapted  for  such  purposes  as  those  within  the  walls. 

It  is  suggested,  also,  that  they  were  "game  preserves,"  into 
which  wild  animals  suitable  for  food  could  be  driven  and  con- 
fined until  needed.  Even  admitting  the  people  to  have  been  so 
enervated  as  to  enjoy  this  form  of  sport,  they  would  have  found 
more  difficulty  in  providing  food  for  their  captives  than  in  chasing 
them  down  as  they  were  needed  or  in  driving  them  into  some 
ravine  and  slaughtering  them  as  they  came  across  the  pass  at 
the  top.  The  native  wild  animals  of  the  region  would  pay  scant 
respect  to  any  walls  that  could  be  made  of  earth ;  besides,  the 
numerous  openings  or  gateways  preclude  any  such  service  for 
the  works.  The  same  objections  are  fatal  to  the  theory  that  the 
enclosed  space  was  used  for  farming  purposes  by  inhabitants 
of  villages  situated  outside  the  walls,  who  took  this  method 
of  protecting  their  crops.  It  is  true  that  palisades  may  have  been 
set  along  the  top ;  but  palisades  strong  enough  to  be  of  any 
service  in  such  position  would  have  been  equally  effectual  in  the 
absence  of  walls,  thereby  obviating  the  necessity  of  erecting  the 
latter. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  all  such  theories  are  based 
solely  upon  the  idea  that  the  manners,  customs,  and  condition 
of  life  among  the  Mound  Builders,  were  such  as  to  harmonize 
with  the  conception  which  has  found  lodgment  in  the  mind  of 
the  theorizer.  In  other  words,  through  a  study  of  the  earthworks 
an  author  has  been  led — or  has  led  himself — to  believe  that  they 
denote  for  the  builders  a  certain  social  organization  ;  the  particular 
kind  or  degree  of  this  being  whatever  he  chooses  to  imagine  it. 
Having  thus  formulated  a  system  of  government,  he  proceeds 
to  show  what  motives  would  lead  people  in  such  stage  of  culture 
to  construct  the  enclosures.  Then,  from  the  enclosures  and  allied 
works,  he  infers  the  performance  of  sundry  ceremonies  and  ob- 
servances which  shall  have  to  find  their  expression  by  such  means, 
and  shall  at  the  same  time  correspond  with  the  stage  of  culture 


Purpose  of  Large  Enclosures,  163 

in  which  the  actors  are  supposed  to  be  living.  This  is  not  reason- 
ing in  a  circle,  but  along  three  straight  lines  which,  if  we  may  set 
aside  a  mathematical  axiom,  begin  and  end  at  the  same  point. 
In  a  few  sentences,  Foster  summarizes  the  various  opinions, 
except  as  to  the  stock-yard  notion, 

"The  large  [enclosures]  may  have  been  walls,  surrounding  their 
towns  and  cultivated  fields,  and  even  used  to  protect  their  fields  from 
predatory  animals.  The  smaller  ones  may  have  been  designed  to  guard 
their  temples  and  sepulchral  mounds  from  profane  intrusion.  Every 
nation  has  its  games,  and  the  ruder  the  nation  is,  the  greater  the  attempt 
at  barbaric  pomp  and  magnificence.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
Mound  Builders  had  their  national  games  which  were  celebrated  within 
these  enclosures.  They  had,  too,  their  religious  observances,  their  funeral 
ceremonies, and  their  grand  councils;  but  no  clear  line,  I  think,  can  be 
drawn  in  reference  to  the  different  purposes  of  these  structures."  — Fos- 
ter, 176. 

So  far  as  the  "  sepulchral  mounds  "  are  concerned,  nearly 
all  of  them  are  outside  of  the  enclosures. 

Perhaps  the  most  plausible  hypothesis  is  that  villages  were 
located  within  the  walls;  though  it  does  not  follow,  as  seems  to 
be  generally  held,  that  the  latter  are  intended  as  a  defense  against 
invaders. 

"A  few  of  these  enclosures  may  possibly  owe  their  origin  to  a 
religious  sentiment,  but  of  a  large  majority  of  them  it  may  be  safely  said, 
in  view  of  recent  investigations,  that  they  were  simply  fortified  villages. 
Self-protection  was  the  primary  object  of  the  people  who  lived  behind 
these  walls."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  555. 

The  numerous  gate-ways  show  that  ready  entrance  and  exit 
was  desired,  and  they  are  almost  invariably  so  wide  that  speedy 
closure  would  be  impossible,  since  this  could  be  accomplished 
only  by  means  of  palisades  or  breastworks  of  logs.  These  would 
take  time  to  erect  and  must  be  removed  again  to  make  the 
openings  available.  Further,  a  wall  higher  than  a  man's  head, 
especially  one  with  an  interior  ditch,  would  give  the  defender 
no  advantage  over  his  assailant;  for  unless  a  platform  were 
constructed  entirely  around  the  inner  side,  he  could  see  over 
the  top  only  by  climbing  up  a  slope  on  which  he  would  find 
it  difficult  to  secure  a  foothold.  The  embankments  at  Hope- 
town  and  at  the  Hopewell  group,  in  Ross  county,  are  certainly 
not  constructed  with  a  view  to  defense;  the  circle  in  the  former 
runs  for  a  part  of  its  course  along  the  slope  of  a  terrace  whose 
top  commands  the  interior;  while  in  the  latter  the  wall  closely 


154  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

follows  the  top  of  a  terrace  on  which  an  enemy  could  have  ample 
space  of  level  ground  for  his  approach  and  maneuvers,  while 
the  inmates  would  have  barely  room  to  stand.  It  would  seem 
that  if  either  had  been  intended  for  a  protective  purpose,  the 
walls  would  have  extended  far  enough  back  on  these  upper  levels 
to  afford  sufficient  room  for  defensive  movements. 

In  most  of  these  works,  the  garrison  could  be  easily  cut 
off  from  their  water  supply  by  an  investing  force  of  large  num- 
bers. Should  the  besiegers  once  gain  possession  of  the  top  of  the 
wall,  the  defenders  would  be  in  a  death  trap  from  which  there 
was  no  escape. 

Again,  there  are  no  surface  indications  of  occupation  within 
them,  such  as  have  led  to  the  discovery  of  so  many  village- 
sites  ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  all  such  refuse  has  been  covered 
by  natural  accumulations  to  a  greater  depth  than  farming  opera- 
tions can  reach.  They  have  not  been  disclosed  by  any  excava- 
tions for  cellars,  foundations,  etc. 

Morgan  thinks  the  larger  circle  at  High  Banks  may  have 
been  a  garden  enclosure ;  the  smaller  ones  ''  suggest  the  circular 
estufas  found  in  connection  with  the  New  Mexican  pueblos. 
*  *  The  circles  were  adapted  to  open-air  councils  after  the 
fashion  of  the  American  Indian  tribes." — Morgan,  215. 

After  assuming  that  the  Mound  Builders  were  of  the  same 
stock  as  the  Pueblo  Indians,  he  says  that  when  they 

"  reached  the  Scioto  valley,  in  Ohio,  they  would  find  it  impossible  to 
construct  houses  of  adobe  brick  able  to  resist  the  rains  and  frosts  of  that 
climate,  even  if  they  found  the  adobe  soil.  *  *  *  They  might  have 
used  stone.  Or  they  might  have  fallen  back  upon  a  house  of  inferior  grade, 
located  upon  the  level  ground.  *  *  ^  Or,  they  might  have  raised  these 
embankments  of  earth,  including  rectangles  or  squares,  and  constructed 
long  houses  upon  them,  which,  it  is  submitted,  is  precisely  what  they  did." 
—  Morgan,  206. 

"  The  embankments  enclosmg  the  squares  were  probably  the  sites  of 
their  houses ;  since,  as  the  highest,  and  because  they  were  straight,  they 
were  best  adapted  to  the  purpose.  If  these  embankments  [referring  to 
those  at  High  Banks]  were  reformed,  with  the  materials  washed  down 
they  would  form  new  embankments  thirty-seven  feet  wide  at  base,  ten 
feet  high,  and  with  a  summit  platform  twenty-two  feet  wide.  If  a  surface 
coating  of  clay  were  used,  the  sides  could  be  made  steeper  and  the  sum- 
mit platforms  broader.  On  embankments  thus  formed  out  of  their  original 
materials  respectable  as  well  as  sufficient  sites  would  be  provided  for  long 
joint-tenement  houses,  comparted  into  chambers  like  stalls  opening  upon  a 


Purpose  of  Large  Enclosures.  155 

central  passage-way  through  the  structure  from  end  to  end,  as  in  the  long 
houses  of  the  Iroquois.  These  embankments  answered  as  a  substitute  for 
the  first  story  of  the  house  constructed  of  adobe  bricks.  The  gateways 
were  protected,  it  may  be  supposed,  with  palisades.  The  pueblo,  exter- 
nally, would  thus  present  continuous  ramparts  of  earth  ten  feet  high, 
around  an  enclosed  area,  surmounted  with  timber-framed  houses  with 
walls  sloping  like  the  embankments,  and  coated  with  earth  mixed  with  clay 
and  gravel,  rising  ten  or  twelve  feet  above  their  summits ;  the  two  forming 
a  sloping  wall  of  earth  twenty  feet  high.  Figure  47  [Morgan,  210,  repro- 
duced here  as  figure  8]  shows  not  only  the  feasibility  of  occupying  these 
embankments  with  long  houses,  but  also  that  each  pueblo  was  designed  by 
the  Mound-Builders  to  be  a  fortress  able  to  resist  assault  with  the 
appliances  of  Indian  warfare.  Occupying  to  the  edge  of  the  embankments, 
they  could  not  be  successfully  assailed  from  without  either  by  Indian 
weapons  or  by  fire.  The  inclosed  court,  which  is  of  unusual  size,  is  one  of 
the  remarkable  features  of  the  plan.  It  afforded  a  protected  place  for  the 
villagers,  room  for  their  drying-scaffolds,  and  for  gardens,  as  well  as  for 
fuel  for  winter  use."  —  Morgan,  207,  et  seq,  condensed. 

Figure  8  [N.  A.  Cont.,  IV,  210,  fig.  47]  presents  a  ''  Restora- 
tion of  High  Bank  Pueblo,"  according  to  the  ideas  set  forth  by- 
Morgan;  while  figure  9  [same,  fig.  48]  gives  a  ground  plan  and 
section  of  the  house  which  he  thinks  may  have  been  erected  on 
the  walls. 

But  the  theory  takes  as  its  basis  that  the  walls  are  com- 
posed of,  or  at  least  coated  with,  tough  clay  which  will  stand 
with  a  very  steep  slope  from  top  to  bottom.  None  of  the 
embankments  are  thus  constructed,  being  made  of  the  loam  and 
gravel  constituting  the  soil  about  them,  which  will  not  maintain 
a  greater  angle  than  an  ordinary  fill  made  of  similar  material 
for  a  road  or  railway.  To  erect  on  the  walls  at  their  present 
height  a  dwelling,  except  of  very  contracted  width,  would  require 
a  breadth  at  top  greater  than  can  be  given  to  any  of  them  with 
the  amount  of  material  used,  unless  means  be  taken,  as  by  a. 
palisade  or  retaining  wall  of  some  description,  to  keep  them 
from  crumbling  down;  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  was  ever 
done. 

We  have  now  come  back  to  the  starting-point ;  namely,  that 
every  theory  which  has  been  devised  to  explain  the  larger  enclos- 
ures has  a  valid  objection.  Yet  some  one  of  them  must  certainly 
be  applicable  to  any  given  enclosure ;  because  every  conceivable 
reason  for  their  existence — except,  perchance,  the  right  one — 
seems  to  have  been  advanced.  If  careful  examinations  should  be 
made  by  experienced  investigators,  of  the  embankments,  ditches^ 


156 


Archaeolcgical  History  of  Ohio. 


Geometrical  Enclosures. 


157 


SECTION. 


PART  ELEVATION. 


5te4z^/^f---^-frr ./^ 


Part  Plan  on 
A.B 


Figure  9  —  Morgan's  Plan  of  "  High  Bank  Pueblo. 


158  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  included  areas,  to  a  depth  at  or  below  any  level  which  was 
disturbed  by  the  Mound  Builders,  we  might  be  able  to  arrive 
at  definite  and  defensible  conclusions.  Until  this  is  done,  any 
explanation  must  remain  open  to  question.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  such  explorations  would  leave  us  still  in  the  dark;  for 
there  is  no  assurance  that  the  desired  information  would  be 
forthcoming. 

Perhaps  we  may  obtain  a  hint  from  the  far-away  Fiji  Islands. 
In  one  community  there  is 

"A  town  fortified  with  an  earthen  rampart,  about  six  feet  thick, 
faced  with  large  stones,  surmounted  by  a  reed  fence  or  cocoanut  trunks, 
and  surrounded  by  a  muddy  moat."  Battles  are  conducted  among  them 
exactly'as  among  Indians.  —  Fiji,  37. 

Any  interpretation  of  the  enclosures  must  apply  to  the  long 
walls  or  parallels  connected  with  them.  The  solution  of  the 
problem,  if  it  is  ever  achieved,  will  be  something  different 
from  Feet's  explanation  of  features  which  do  not  exist. 

"  Let  us  ask  what  works  there  are  and  what  uses  we  may  discover 
in  them.  We  have  first  the  village  defenses.  This  we  see  was  always 
protected  by  a  circumvallation.  This  circumvallation  was  generally  in 
the  form  of  a  square  and  a  circle,  but  the  circle  was  always  protected 
by  a  high  wall  and  sometimes  by  two  such  walls,  and  the  openings  in  the 
wall  of  the  square  were  always  protected  by  a  watch  tower  or  additional 
platform  guard  on  the  inside.  Second,  there  were  near  the  villages  many 
fortified  hill  tops,  places  to  which  the  villagers  could  resort  in  times  of 
attack.  These  fortified  hills  were  generally  located  in  the  midst  of  several 
villages,  so  that  they  could  be  easily  reached  by  all.  Third,  the  sacrifi- 
cial places  and  the  places  of  religious  assembly,  were  always  provided  with 
circumvallations  or  long  covered  ways.  Nothing  of  a  religious  nature 
was  ever  undertaken  unless  the  people  could  be  protected  by  a  wall. 
Fourth,  we  find  that  the  sweat-houses,  so-called,  were  always  close  by 
the  village  enclosure,  but  if  by  any  means  it  was  remote,  there  was  always 
a  covered  way  provided,  so  that  it  could  be  reached  in  safety  from  the 
village  enclosure.  Fifth,  the  same  is  true  of  the  dance  circles  and  places 
of  amusement.  These  were  sometimes  remote  from  the  village,  but  in  all 
such  cases  there  was  a  covered  way  between  the  village  and  the  dance 
ground.  Sixth,  the  fields  were  cultivated,  but  the  fields  were  reached  by 
passing  through  the  parallels  or  covered  ways,  and  lookout  mounds  or 
observatories  were  always  provided  to  protect  those  at  work  and  to  sound 
the  alarm  to  them.  Seventh,  there  were  landing  places  for  canoes  and 
places  at  which  the  villagers  could  reach  the  water's  edge.  These,  how- 
ever, were  always  protected  by  covered  ways.  Every  village  had  its 
landing  place,  but  nearly  every  landing  place  was  furnished  with  a  graded 
and  a  protected  or  covered  way,  the  canoes  being  kept  from  the  water  and 


Labor  of  Construction  Probably  Voluntary.  159 

from  the  enemy  by  the  same  contrivance.  Eighth,  we  find  a  few  isolated 
enclosures.  These  are  parallels,  supposed  to  have  been  used  for  races 
and  other  games.  They,  too,  present  the  peculiarity  of  having  a  wall 
to  protect  them.  The  sacrificial  or  burial  places  were  also  isolated,  but 
even  the  burial  grounds  were  furnished  with  heavy  earth  walls  or  cir- 
cumvallations.  The  lookouts  were  also  at  times  isolated  from  the  villages, 
but  even  the  lookout  mounds  were  surrounded  with  circles  to  protect 
them,  and  some  of  them  were  connected  with  the  village  sites  by  covered 
ways.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  people  were  not  willing  even  to  trust  their 
sentinels  or  watchmen  to  the  open  fields  or  to  risk  the  chance  of  his  reach- 
ing an  enclosure  by  rapid  flight,  but  even  he  must  be  protected  by  a  wall 
or  covered  way. 

•'This  presents  a  new  view  of  the  earthworks  of  the  region.  It 
shows  that  the  people  realized  their  danger;  that  while  they  were  peace- 
able themselves  and  were  given  to  agriculture  and  to  a  peculiar  religious 
cult,  yet  they  were  in  the  midst  of  a  savage  foe  which  was  always  lurking 
near.  *  *  *  The  Mound  Builders  of  Ohio,  then,  and  the  Indians  of 
later  times  were  plainly  very  different  from  one  another."  —  Peet,  I,  93, 
et  seq. 

What  his  "  sweat-houses  "  or  ''dance  circles  "  are,  no  one 
knows.  Many  of  the  village-sites  are  remote  from  streams  large 
enough  to  float  canoes;  of  those  closer,  not  one  now  presents  a 
"  graded  way  "  to  the  water,  nor  a  "covered  way  "  directly  to  a 
canoe  landing.  According  to  Major  Long  there  was  such  a 
protected  grade  at  Piqua;  but  nothing  remains  to  show  the 
accuracy  of  the  statement.  Neither  is  there  any  evidence  of  most 
of  the  "  protective  walls  "  which  Peet  thinks  he  sees. 


One  conclusion  seems  warrantable.  Earthworks  of  every 
description,  whether  low-land  enclosures  for  social  requirements 
of  any  character;  or  hill-top  forts  for  protection;  or  mounds 
intended  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  dead;  or  anomalous  struc- 
tures at  whose  meaning  we  can  not  guess ;  —  of  whatever  kind 
and  for  w^hatever  purpose,  they  were  probably  public  in  their 
nature  and  erected  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the  whole  community. 
This  is  a  less  pleasing  view  of  the  matter  than  the  picture  of 
great  multitudes  of  workmen,  drafted  from  a  dense  popnl^t^'or, 
and  toiling  day  after  day  under  the  direction  of  task-masters; 
but  it  is  more  in  accordance  w4th  the  testimony  of  the  works 
themselves. 

It  may  be  added  that  invariably  the  great  bulk  of  the  struc- 
tures is  of  earth  from  the  immediate  vicinity,  despite  the  gen- 


160  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

eral  impression  that  it  is  "  brought  from  a  distance."     This  is  a. 
patent  fact  to  all  who  are  familiar  with  soils. 

"The  walls  are  usually  composed  of  earth  taken  up  evenly  from  the 
surface,  or  from  large  pits  in  the  neighborhood.  Evident  care  appears 
in  all  cases  to  have  been  exercised,  in  procuring  the  material,  to  preserve 
the  surface  of  the  adjacent  plain,  smooth,  and  as  far  as  possible,  un- 
broken." —  S.  &  D.,  48. 

No  instruments  beyond  stakes  and  lines  are  required  in 
marking  out  any  of  the  enclosures,  large  or  small.  A  circle  may 
be  accurately  laid  off  with  a  line  of  sufficient  length,  which  is 
firmly  secured  at  one  end  and  kept  tightly  stretched  while  the 
other  end  is  being  carried  around.  A  deer-hide  may  be  cut,  as  a 
shoemaker  cuts  a  string  from  a  small  piece  of  leather,  into  a 
thong  with  a  length  greater  than  the  radius  of  any  prehistoric 
circle  in  the  State,  and  of  sufficient  strength  to  withstand  the 
strain  of  such  use;  or  several  thongs  may  be  tied  together  if 
necessary.  Should  there  be  obstructions  interfering  with  the  free 
sweep  of  the  line,  points  on  the  circumference  may  be  marked  at 
any  desired  intervals  by  drawing  the  cord  taut  and  setting 
stakes  at  the  outer  end.  If  these  are  close  together  they  may 
be  connected  by  straight  lines  of  embankment  whose  very  small 
angles  of  divergence  will  in  time  disappear  under  the  influence  of 
wind  and  weather;  and  the  wall  will  finally  assume  the  form  of 
a  curve,  practically  continuous  and  requiring  careful  measure- 
ment to  distinguish  from  a  true  circle. 

Not  only  can  we  say  that  the  circles  may  have  been  outlined 
in  this  manner;  we  have  evidence  that  such  was  the  method 
employed. 

"That  their  work  was  marked  out  before  commencing  the  same  we 
have  every  reason  for  believing.  Of  the  three,  or  rather  four,  sacred  enclos- 
ures at  Alexanderville,  not  one  is  complete.  These  incomplete  remains 
prove  that  all  of  these  works  were  commenced  at  the  same  time,  all  aban- 
doned before  being  finished,  and  all  show  what  method  was  pursued  in 
their  construction.  The  three  mounds  of  the  smaller  circle,  we  found 
not  to  be  mounds  at  all,  but  intended  to  form  component  parts  of  the  in- 
tended circle,  and  were  not  placed  in  a  straight  line  to  the  circle,  but 
located  on  the  line  of  the  curve.  The  whole  line  was  established  before 
the  work  was  begun,  and  work  was  performed  on  different  parts  of  the  line 
at  the  same  time.  This  fact  is  also  true  of  the  square  a  short  distance 
removed  from  the  circle.  We  must  not  rely  on  the  plan  of  these  works 
as  given  in  the  "Ancient  Monuments,"  which  is  faulty  in  more  than  one- 
particular. 


Methods  of  Laying  Out  Enclosures. 


161 


"A  circular  work  eighty  feet  in  diameter,  in  Butler  county,  is  in- 
complete, being  composed  of  four  mounds  three  feet  in  height,  corres- 
ponding with  the  cardinal  points  of  the  compass.  Between  the  mounds 
the  walls  gradually  taper  until  they  meet  midway.  These  mounds  may 
represent  the  original  height  of  the  proposed  wall.  In  another  part  of 
the  same  county,  are  eleven  hillocks  (small  mounds)  which  made  a 
complete  circle  two  hundred  and  thirty  feet  in  diameter.  All  of  the  eleven 
hillocks,  except  one  to  the  southwest,  had  their  corresponding  depressions 
facing  the  center.  The  exception  was  due  to  a  tree  falling.  It  was  plain 
that  a  plan  for  a  work  had  been  laid  out  here,  the  mounds  or  stakes 
had  been  set,  and  then  for  some  cause  the  work  was  abandoned."  —  Mc- 
Lean, 84,  172,  and  220,  condensed. 


B               \:^ 

The  construction  of  a  square  figure  without  instruments  is 
somewhat  more  difficult,  but  can  be  compassed  with  a  little  care 
and  patience.  Lay  off  a  straight  line,  AC,  and  mark  its  middle 
point,  B.  Procure  two  cords  of  exactly  the  same  length,  some- 
what longer  than  the  distance  AB.  Stretch  these  cords  from  A 
and  C  until  their  ends  touch  at  the  point  P ;  draw  a  line  equal  to 
AB  from  B,  through  P,  to  D.  From  D  draw  lines  to  A  and  C. 
In  the  same  manner  find  a  point,  E,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
line  AC,  and  draw  AE  and  CE.  The  points  A,  D,  C,  and  E, 
will  mark  the  corners  of  a  square.  Or,  if  lines  equal  to  AB  be 
extended  from  each  of  these  points  their  intersections  will  fall 
at  the  corners  of  a  new  square  having  twice  the  area  of  the  first. 
By  repeating  this  process,  an  enclosure  of  any  size  may  be  marked 
off.  If  all  measurements  are  accurate,  each  figure  successively 
formed  will  be  regular;  but  a  mistake  at  any  stage  of  the  work 
is  multiplied  in  each  following  step.  Consequently,  the  larger 
11 


162  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  initial  square  is  made,  the  closer  will  be  the  approximation 
to  exactness  in  the  completed  work.  In  fact  there  is  no  necessity 
for  making  more  than  a  single  series  of  measurements ;  for  with 
one  cord  of  525  feet  for  the  line  AB  and  two  others  somewhat 
longer  but  not  to  exceed  742  feet,  for  AP  and  PC  —  measures 
quite  within  the  reach  of  any  hunter  of  large  game  —  a  square 
can  be  at  once  laid  off  which  will  enclose  an  area  of  a  little  over 
25  acres. 

The  easiest  method  of  constructing  a  square,  when  exact 
dimensions  are  not  required,  is  to  lay  off  a  circle,  divide  the  cir- 
cumference into  four  equal  arcs,  and  draw  chords  to  these. 

To  construct  an  octagon,  lay  off  a  square ;  prolong  the  diam- 
eters as  far  beyond  the  sides  as  desired;  connect  their  ends  with 
the  corners  of  the  square.  The  angles  of  the  octagon  will  vary 
with  the  extent  to  which  the  diameters  are  carried;  but  this 
extension  must  not  exceed  two-tenths  of  the  original  length,  at 
each  end  of  the  diameter.  A  slight  increase  beyond  this  limit 
will  produce  a  square  whose  diameters  are  the  diagonals  of  the 
one  on  which  it  was  built;  a  greater  increase  will  form  a  four- 
pointed  star. 

It  may  be  objected  that  such  calculations  as  the  last  surpass 
the  abilities  of  barbarians.  We  have  the  evidence  of  the  works 
themselves  that  calculations  or  measurements  of  some  description 
were  made ;  those  indicated  are  the  simplest  possible  for  tolerably 
accurate  work.  Anything  less  intricate  must  be  mere  guess-work 
or  "  rule  of  thumb."  At  any  rate,  people  who  would  find  these 
simple  methods  beyond  their  reach,  would  certainly  be  unable 
to  devise  means  for  ensuring  the  "  mathematical  accuracy  "  of 
which  we  hear  so  much.  ^ 

GEOMETRIC  ENCLOSURES. 

It  would  be  equally  impracticable  and  unnecessary  to  attempt 
an  illustration  or  even  a  description  of  all  the  enclosures  In  the 
State.  But  all  of  those  usually  termed  "  geometrical  "  may  be 
presented  In  order  that  the  reader  may  perceive  for  himself  upon 
what  a  slender  basis  this  so-called  ''  civilization  "  Is  laid. 

THE    NEWARK    WORKS. 

In  Licking  county  there  are  probably  500  earthworks  of 
all  descriptions  without  including  in  the  estimate  the  excavations 
at  Flint  Ridge.     In  the  vicinity  of  Newark,  mile  after  mile  of 


Licking  County. 


163 


embankments,  circles  and  other  geometric  figures,  parallels, 
lodge-sites,  and  mounds,  covering  an  area  of  more  than  four 
square  miles,  amaze  the  archaeologist  and  curiosity  seeker  alike  as 
they  spend  hours  and  days  in  traversing  the  ground  in  every 
'direction,  constantly  finding  something  worthy  of  investigation 
and  description. 

Part  of  these  are  shown  in  Figure  lo  (S.  &  D.,  98,  Plate 
XXXVI,  No.  4),  which  is  a  map  of  six  miles  of  the  Raccoon 


Map  of  6/x  Miles 

OF  THE 

RACCOON  CREEK  VALLEY 
Lickincj  Co.  Ohio 


Figure  10. 


creek  valley.  There  are  numerous  mounds  and  many  other 
works  within  this  area  which  are  not  represented. 

The  principal  groups,  commonly  known  as  the  Newark 
works,  are  shown  in  Figure  ii  (B.  E.,  12,  458,  Plate  XXX),  from 
a  survey  made  by  Whittlesey  for  Squier  and  Davis.  The  plan  is 
erroneous  in  several  particulars,  although  it  furnishes  an  excel- 
lent idea  of  the  system  in  its  entirety.  Owing  to  the  growth  of 
the  city  many  of  the  remains  are  now  obliterated. 

Atwater's  map  shows  only  the  large  enclosures  and  parallel 
walls.  On  the  brink  of  the  terrace  are  represented  embankments 
extending  from  the  small  circles  containing  mounds,  which  lie 


164 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


U'erj/^'    ^t'•>>oV 


;l^ 


•I  H 


The  Nezmrk  Works.  165 

to  the  south  and  the  north  of  the  parallels;  all  these  walls  stop 
at  the  top  of  the  terraces,  but  "  graded  ways  "  are  indicated  in 
the  lower  bottoms,  in  line  with  them.  His  drawing  of  the  eastern 
portion  of  these  works  is  quite  different  from  Whittlesey's.  He 
claims  that  the  streams  were  at  the  foot  of  the  high  terraces 
when  the  works  were  constructed,  and  says  ''passages  down  to 
the  water  have  been  made  of  easy  ascent  and  descent." —  At- 
water,  126-8. 

According  to  the  description  which  accompanies  Whittle- 
sey's plan, 

"The  greatest  elevation  of  the  embankment  of  the  great  circle  E, 
is  sixteen  feet;  the  greatest  depth  of  the  ditch,  thirteen  feet;  the  wall 
will  average  twelve  feet  high  by  fifty  feet  base,  and  the  ditch  seven  feet 
in  depth  by  thirty-five  in  breadth.  It  is  not,  as  has  been  generally  repre- 
sented, a  true  circle;  its  form  is  that  of  an  ellipse,  its  diameters  being 
twelve  hundred  and  fifty  and  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  feet  respectively. 
There  are  two  or  three  slight  irregularities  in  the  outline,  too  trifling, 
however,  to  be  indicated  in  the  plan. 

"  The  wall  of  the  circle  is  six  feet  high  and  of  the  octagon  and  square 
about  five  and  a  half.  At  each  of  the  angles  of  the  octagon  is  a  gate- 
way, which  is  covered  upon  the  interior  by  a  small,  truncated  pyramidal 
elevation,  five  feet  in  height,  and  measuring  eighty  by  one  hundred  feet 
at  the  base.  These  are  not  of  the  same  class  as  the  *  Temple  Mounds,' 
and  were  made  for  a  different  purpose,  apparently,  though  it  is  some- 
what uncertain  what  may  have  been  the  intention  of  either.  It  is  probable 
that  most,  if  not  all,  of  them  were  in  some  manner  connected  with  the  de- 
fense of  the  enclosure  to  which  they  belong. 

"  The  enclosure  F  is  a  true  circle  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  in  circumference.  At  a  point  immediately  opposite  the  en- 
trance it  would  almost  seem  that  the  builders  had  originally  determined 
to  carry  out  parallel  lines ;  but  after  proceeding  one  hundred  feet,  had 
suddenly  changed  their  minds  and  finished  the  enclosure,  by  throwing 
an  immense  mound  across  the  uncompleted  parts.  It  has  been  pretty 
thoroughly  excavated,  but  the  excavations  seem  to  have  disclosed  nothing, 
except  an  abundance  of  rough  stones,  which  must  have  been  brought 
from  the  creek  or  some  other  remote  locality,  as  none  are  scattered  over 
the  remarkable  plain  upon  which  these  works  are  situated. 

"It  would  be  unprofitable  to  indulge  in  speculations  as  to  the  prob- 
able origin  and  purpose  of  this  group  of  works."  —  S.  &  D.,  68-71,  con- 
densed. 

The  rough  stones  noted  in  the  circle  F  are  angular  fragments 
of  sandstone,  not  at  all  waterworn,  which  could  be  procured  only 
on  some  of  the  hills  in  the  vicinity.  They  constitute  a  large 
part,  perhaps  half,  of  the  wall  about  this  closed  entrance.     The 


166 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


remainder  is  of  the  soil  covering  the  adjacent  ground.     Never- 
theless McLean  says  of  this  part  of  the  wall: 

"It  was  discovered  that  [it]  was  constructed  entirely  of  clay.  Fromi 
this  it  has  been  concluded  that  originally  it  was  built  of  sun-dried  bricks,, 
but  during  the  lapse  of  ages,  the  external  or  exposed  surfaces  have  crum- 
bled away.  It  may  be  that  all  the  larger  works  of  this  series  together 
with  the  heavier  walls  were  either  composed  of  or  else  faced  with  sun- 
dried  bricks."  —  McLean,  33. 

No  triice  of  "  sun-dried  bricks  "  or  any  other  sort  of  bricks, 
has  ever  been  found  in  connection  with  prehistoric  works  in  Ohio- 
—  unless  of  intrusive  character. 


Figure  12. 


Some  errors  in  the  plan  and  description  may  be  pointed  out. 

The  northern  parallels,  gh,  reach  only  to  the  brink  of  the- 
upper  terrace.  There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  they  ever 
reached  down  its  slope  as  indicated,  for  not  only  is  there  no' 
inequality  of  its  surface  apparent,  but  the  owner  of  the  land, 
who  was  familiar  with  them  before  this  survey  was  made,  says 
they  terminated  at  the  top  of  the  bank.  Atwater  correctly  rep- 
resents this  feature.  Neither  is  there  the  slightest  evidence  of 
an  elevated  way  across  the  low  ground  beyond,  as  represented  in 
some  drawings.  Its  surface  is  irregular,  with  numerous  slight 
elevations  and  depressions,  none  of  which  are  artificial. 

The  small  circle  G  is  placed  too  far  to  the  north ;  between  it 
and  the  parallels  is  the  singular  structure  shown  in  Figure  I2* 
(B.  E.  12,460,  Fig.  315). 


The  Newark  Works.  167 

There  are  two  large  deep  excavations  immediately  north  of 
the  octagon,  and  also  slight  depressions  along  the  walls  as  well 
as  at  some  little  distance  away,  both  within  and  without  the 
enclosure,  whence  the  earth  for  the  embankment  was  taken.  The 
terrace  on  which  the  octagon  stands  is  about  fifty  feet  above  the 
creek-bed.  Had  clay  been  desired  for  the  walls,  it  could  have 
been  obtained  in  any  amount  in  the  low  ground  along  the  stream. 
There  is  a  strong  spring  of  very  cold  water  under  the  bank  at 
the  point  nearest  the  work. 

All  the  low  terraces  bordering  that  upon  which  these  remains 
are  situated,  are  liable  to  overflow.  The  streams  have  flowed 
immediately  under  precipitous  banks  of  the  upper  terrace  at  a 
period  quite  recent  —  in  some  parts,  undoubtedly  since  the  works 
were  built.  Yet,  notwithstanding  assertions  of  various  writers, 
from  the  time  of  Atwater  down  to  the  present,  there  is  no  indica- 
tion of  a  roadway  or  even  of  an  easy  grade  having  been  con- 
structed to  make  access  to  water  more  convenient.  North  of 
the  octagon  is  a  gulley  or  depression,  apparently  not  due  to  sur- 
face drainage,  which  might  be  the  result  of  a  path  worn  in  the 
face  of  the  bank;  but  it  extends  only  five  or  six  feet  back  from 
the  terrace  margin.  Between  the  two  parallels,  gh,  and  also 
between  those  at  the  southeast  part  of  the  group,  is  a  re-entrant 
curve,  which  may  be  artificial,  although  similar  indentations  are 
quite  common  along  streams  anywhere,  in  loose  material.  The 
slope  of  these  concavities  is  as  great,  at  their  upper  part,  as  that  of 
the  unaltered  terrace  on  either  side ;  so  that,  if  dug  at  all,  it  was 
not  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  passage  in  either  direction. 
The  walls  of  the  southeast  parallels  stop  at  the  top  of  the  bank ; 
indeed,  one  of  them  does  not  quite  reach  the  edge,  though  this 
may  be  due  to  the  plow.  The  re-entrant  space  here  may  result 
from  digging  out  gravel  to  make  a  causeway  across  the  old 
channel  that  marks  a  former  course  of  the  creek  along  the  foot 
of  the  terrace ;  but  it  is  possible  that  this  raised  space  is  due 
to  an  ox-bow  loop  at  this  spot.  In  tHe  figure  a  section  across  the 
end  of  this  level  shows  a  roadway  built  up,  with  a  wall  along 
each  side  of  it.  This  section  is  imaginary,  as  no  trace  of  an 
artificial  wall  now  exists  there,  though  numerous  hummocks  and 
little  ridges  diversify  the  surface.  Besides,  there  is  no  reason  for 
the  "  way  "  ending  where  shown,  as  the  same  general  level  holds 
for  a  considerable  distance.     There  is  a  natural  break  across  a 


168  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

sharp  angle  of  the  terrace  a  few  rods  from  this  "artificial  grade ;" 
it  is  very  plainly  natural.  From  its  position  the  Mound  Builders 
could  not  utilize  it.  The  other  break  may  have  been  made  by 
water  in  the  same  way  and  at  the  same  time,  and  the  walls  carried 
to  it  because  it  was  in  a  convenient  position. 

The  three  mounds  in  a  Hne  west  of  the  pond  (which  is  only 
a  swamp  much  of  the  year)  are  close  to  the  bank;  the  fourth 
can  not  be  found,  and  could  not  exist  as  shown,  because  there 
is  not  room  for  it  between  the  pond  and  the  other  mounds.  The 
line  of  their  trend  should  be  to  the  northwest  instead  of  to  the 
northeast. 

The  ditch  within  the  large  circle,  E,  is  considerably  deeper 
at  the  entrance  than  elsewhere ;  the  bottom  presents  the  appear-" 
ance  customary  to  old  depressions,  being  of  a  grayish  clay  color 
when  dry  but  resembling  the  loam  around  when  wet.  There  is 
nothing  looking  at  all  like  the  compact  clay  bottom,  intentionally 
made,  reported  by  some  late  investigators  who  are  apparently 
not  familiar  with  the  different  aspects  of  the  various  soils  and 
subsoils.  It  has  also  been  asserted  by  some  writers  that  an  "  un- 
derground tunnel  "  connects  the  ditch  with  a  pond  on  the  out- 
side, by  which  means  the  "  moat  "  may  be  flooded  at  will.  Aside 
from  the  question  of  what  possible  benefit  could  be  derived  from 
such  flooding,  is  the  fact  that  the  surface  of  the  pond  is  lower 
than  any  part  of  the  ditch. 

An  inspection  of  figure  13,  (plate  XXXI,  B.  E.  12,  460),  the 
"  Fair  Ground  Circle,"  E,  and  of  figure  14,  (plate  XXXIV,  B.  E. 
12,  466),  the  *'  Square,"  will  show  that  these  enclosures  approach 
much  nearer  to  true  geometrical  symmetry  than  is  shown  in  the 
preceding  plate,  from  Squier  and  Davis.  The  wall  of  the  circle 
varies  in  width  from  35  to  55  feet,  and  in  height  from  5  to  14  feet. 
The  ditcH  is  from  28  to  41  feet  wide,  and  from  8  to  13  feet  deep. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  amount  of  earth  taken  from  the  ditch  is 
not  equal  to  that  in  the  bank.  Measuring  on  top  of  the  wall,  the 
longest  diameter  (from  east  to  west)  is  1,189  ^^^^'^  the  shortest, 
I;  163  feet.  A  true  circle  will  fall  within  the  zone  or  ring  cov- 
ered by  the  wall,  frequently  coinciding  with  its  middle  line  for 
some  yards.    This  is  different  from  Whittlesey's  "ellipse." 

The  southern  corner  of  the  square  is  destroyed;  by  assum- 
ing to  be  at  the  point  (8)  where  the  adjacent  lines  intersect  when 
produced,  we  find  the  angles  to  be : — At  station  2,  90°  51' ;  at  sta- 


The  Newark  Works. 


169 


figure  13  -  The  "  Fair  Ground  Circle  "  at  Newark. 


170 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


iwwfflwpwjifiwiiiawiw^^^ 


V  7. 


Figure  14  —  The  "  Square  "  at  Newark. 


The  Marietta  Works.  171 

tion  3,  89°  40' ;  at  station  6,  90°  26' ;  and  at  station  8,  89°  3'.  The 
sides,  measured  in  the  same  direction,  are  928  feet ;  926  feet ; 
939  feet;  and  951  feet. 

The  maximum  diameter  of  the  "  observatory  circle  "  (F)  is 
1,059  feet;  the  minimum,  1,050  feet;  the  mean,  1,054.5.  The 
nearest  exact  circle  has  a  diameter  of  1,054  feet,  and  the  widest 
divergence  between  this  and  the  line  of  actual  survey  is  four  feet. 
The  "  circumference  of  2,880  feet  "  must  have  been  measured 
entirely  inside  the  embankment. 

In  the  Octagon,  the  angles  at  center,  of  the  diagonals,  are 
only  10'  from  right  angles ;  of  the  diameters,  only  2'. 

In  these  plates,  as  in  all  that  are  copied  from  the  report 
of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology's  reports  on  the  mounds  of  the 
Central  States,  the  solid  black  line  represents  the  chords  or  dis- 
tances which  were  laid  off  before  any  bearings  were  taken;  the 
angles,  when  not  on  the  wall,  are  at  the  intersection  of  adjacent 
straight  lines.  All  stakes  were  set  as  near  the  middle  as  was 
possible  by  measure  and  judgment.  Greater  care  was  taken  in 
gettings  bearings  and  distances  than  is  usually  employed  in  rail- 
way or  canal  surveys.  Middleton  and  I,  who  did  the  work, 
stand  by  our  figures,  and  with  all  the  more  reason,  too,  that  in 
some  cases  they  completely  upset  our  antecedent  ideas  and  opin- 
ions. 

These  magnificent  works  bid  fair  to  remain  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  future  ages.  The  Licking  County  Fair  Association  holds 
the  title  to  the  circle  E,  while  the  State  has  acquired  the  circle  F 
and  the  octagon.  It  is  probable  that  none  of  these  will  ever  suffer 
any  diminution  in  size.  In  fact,  the  State  authorities  have  a  little 
overdone  the  matter  of  restoration.  Unless  there  is  considerable 
reduction,  from  weathering,  of  that  portion  which  has  lately  been 
built  up,  visitors  in  generations  to  come  will  infer  that  some  parts 
were  originally  heavier  than  others,  when  such  was  not  the  case. 
As  the  earth  become  more  compact,  the  difference  will  be  less  ap- 
parent than  at  present. 

THE   MARIETTA    WORKS. 

In  figure  15,  (S.  &  D.,  73,  plate  XXVI),  is  a  reproduction, 
from  the  survey  of  Whittlesey,  of  the  works  at  Marietta.  The 
plain  on  which  these  works  stand  is  from  80  to  100  feet  above  the 
river  level,  and  about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  long  by  half  a  mile 
broad. 


172 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


•SOO        lOOO  zooo 


Figure  15  — The  Marietta  Works. 

"The  walls  of  the  principal  square,  where  they  remain  undisturbed, 
are  now  [the  survey  was  made  in  1837]  between  five  and  six  feet  high 
by  twenty  or  thirty  base;  those  of  the  smaller  enclosure  are  somewhat 
less."  —  S.  &  D.,  73. 

Priest's  and  other  old  maps  show  parallel  walls  extending 
•outwardly  toward  the  river,  from  the  middle  and  northwest  gate- 


Works  at  Charleston,  West  Virginia.  173 

ways  of  the  larger  enclosure.  These  do  not  appear  upon  later 
charts,  nor  is  any  mention  made  of  them.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
they  ever  existed. 

The  large  conical  mound,  with  its  encircling  ditch  and  em- 
bankment is  now  included  within  the  cemetery  grounds,  and  is 
secure  from  injury.  The  flat-topped  mounds  are  reserved  as 
parks;  with  commendable  care,  the  town  authorities  have,  from 
the  first,  taken  measures  for  their  preservation.  The  "  Via  Sa- 
cra" or  graded  way,  to  be  described  later,  is  also  public  property. 
All  of  these  are  subject  only  to  such  damage  as  may  result  from 
persons  walking  on  them ;  a  small  matter,  easily  remedied. 
Everything  else  relating  to  this  group  has  been  obliterated  by  the 
town,  which  now  covers  the  entire  terrace. 

In  the  early  days  of  Alarietta,  in  an  effort  to  determine  the 
age  of  the  works, 

"Dr.  Cutler,  Gov.  St.  Clair,  and  many  other  gentlemen,  ascertained 
that  one  tree  somewhat  decayed  at  the  center,  was  found  to  contain,  at 
least,  four  hundred  and  sixty-three  circles.  In  one  of  the  angles  of  a 
square,  a  decayed  stump  measured  eight  feet  in  diameter  at  the  surface 
of  the  ground;  and  though  the  body  of  the  tree  was  so  mouldered  as 
scarcely  to  be  perceived  above  the  surface  of  the  earth,  we  were  able  to 
trace  the  decayed  wood,  under  the  leaves  and  rubbish,  nearly  one  hun- 
dred feet."  —  Harris,  154,  condensed. 

WORKS    AT    CHARLESTON,    WEST   VIRGINIA. 

A  group  of  mounds  and  enclosures  extending  for  two  miles 
along  the  Kanawha  river,  just  below  Charleston,  plainly  marks 
the  seat  of  a  colony  of  Ohio  Mound  Builders.  Norris  opened 
a  number  of  them,  which  in  construction  and  contents  are  identi- 
cal with  the  Ohio  mounds ;  and  one  of  the  largest  was  so  similar 
in  every  respect  to  the  mound  at  Grave  Creek,  West  Virginia, 
that  it  might  have  been  due  to  the  same  workmen. —  Burial 
Mounds,  53,  et  seq. 

THE    PORTSMOUTH    WORKS. 

Figure  i6  (S.  &  D.,  yy,  plate  XXVII),  represents  the  Ports- 
mouth Works,  consisting  of  three  groups,  two  of  which  are  on 
the  Kentucky  side  and  one  in  Ohio. 

"A  reference  to  the  accompanying  map,  exhibiting  a  section  of 
eight  miles  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  will  show  the  relative  positions  and 
general  plan,  though  not  the  exact  proportions  of  the  series."  The  lines 
of   these   embankments   "are   not   far   from   one   hundred   and  sixty   feet 


174 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


apart,"  each  "measuring  about  four  feet  in  height,  by  twenty  feet  base." 
"The  total   length   of  the  parallels   now   traceable   may   be   estimated   at 


Figure  16. 


eight  miles,  giving  sixteen  miles  of  embankment  to  the  parallels  alone. 
If  we  include  the  walls  of  the  entire  series,  we  have  a  grand  total  of 
upwards  of  twenty  miles."  —  S.  &  D.,  77. 


The  Portsmouth  Works. 


175 


Figure   17  —  Work    opposite    old    mouth    of  the    Scioto. 


176  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  some  portions  of  these  works  had 
been  destroyed  by  natural  influences  prior  to  the  settlement  of 
the  country  by  the  whites. 

Figure  17  (S.  &  *D.,  78,  plate  XXVIII),  shows  that  portion 
of  the  Portsmouth  Group  which  is  in  Kentucky, 

"Opposite  the  old  mouth  of  the  Scioto,  about  two  miles  below  the 
town  of  Portsmouth.  The  terrace  on  which  it  is  situated  *  *  *  ig 
much  cut  up  by  ravines  and  is  quite  uneven.  *  *  *  'pj^g  principal 
work  is  an  exact  rectangle,  eight  hundred  feet  square.  The  walls  are 
about  twelve  feet  high,  by  thirty-five  or  forty  feet  base,  except  on  the 
east,  where  advantage  is  taken  of  the  rise  of  ground,  so  as  to  elevate 
them  about  fifty  feet  above  the  centre  of  the  area."  The  long  lines  to 
either  side  "  are  exactly  parallel  to  the  sides  of  the  main  work,  and  are 
each  two  thousand  one  hundred  feet  long.  Some  measurements  make 
them  of  unequal  length ;  but  after  a  careful  calculation  of  the  space 
occupied  by  the  interrupting  ravines,  they  are  found  to  be  very  nearly, 
not  exactly,  of  the  same  length."  A  singular  work  is  shown  at  N.  "It 
is  on  a  very  narrow  point  between  two  deep  ravines  with  nearly  vertical 
banks.  The  embankment  of  this  work  is  heavy,  and  the  ditch  deep  and 
wide  and  interior  to  the  wall.  From  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  to  the  top 
of  the  wall,  is  perhaps  twelve  or  fifteen  feet.  The  enclosed  oval  area 
is  only  sixty  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  and  ten  long."  Other  details  of 
the  group  are  well  shown  in  the  figure.  —  S.  &  D.,  78. 

There  is  a  slight  error  in  the  course  of  the  east  parallel 
extending  southward;  it  extends  down  the  terrace  bank  to  the 
ravine;  beyond  this,  it  is  built  over  the  point  between  the  two^ 
ravines.     Apparently  it  once  extended  across  the  entire  distance 
unbroken.     This  is  shown  in  A,  figure  17. 

The  group  within  the  present  limits  of  Portsmouth,  now 
completely  destroyed,  is  shown  on  a  larger  scale  in  figure  18. 

"The  most   reasonable  conjecture   respecting  it   is,   that   it   was   in 
some  way  connected  with  the  superstitions  of  its  builders;  in  what  man-- 
ner,   of  course,   it  is  impossible  to  determine." 

The  third  group  of  this  series  is  in  Kentucky,  near  the  mouth  of 
Tygart  river.  "It  consists  of  four  concentric  circles,  placed  at  irregu- 
lar intervals  in  respect  to  each  other,  and  cut  at  right  angles  by  four  broad, 
avenues,  which  conform  in  bearing  very  nearly  to  the  cardinal  points.  A 
large  mound  is  placed  in  the  center ;  it  is  truncated  and  terraced,  and  has . 
a  graded  way  leading  to  its  summit.  *  *  *  Qn  the  supposition  that 
this  work  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  religious  rites  and  cere- 
monies of  the  builders,  this  mound  must  have  afforded  a  most  conspicu- 
ous place  for  their  observance  and  celebration.  And  it  is  easy,  while 
standing  on  its  summit,  to  people  it  with  the  strange  priesthood  of  ancient 
superstition,  and  to  fill  its  avenues  and  line  its  walls  with  the  thronging 
devotees  of  a  mysterious  worship.     Whatever  may  have  been  the  divinity 


The  Portsmouth  Works, 


177 


th 


V 


o 


oo 


/  \..^^ 


"%,  PORTSMOUTH  GROUP) 


600  F££T 
Figure  18  — Works  on  the   Site  of  Portsmouth. 


12 


P0f^T>5M0UTH  GROUP 

€CAL£ 

aoo  FeeiT 

Figure   19  — Large   mound    and   concentric    circles    near    Tygart    River^ 


178 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


of  their  belief,  order,  symmetry,  and  design  were  among  his  attributes ; 
if,  as  appears  most  likely,  the  works  that  most  strongly  exhibit  these 
features  were  dedicated  to  religious  purposes,  and  were  symbolical  in 
their  design."  —  S.  &  D.,  78. 

A  better  understanding-  of  this  unique  structure  may  be  had 
from  the  enlarged  plan  in  figure  19. 

On  the  Kentucky  side  of  the  river,  between  the  most  western 
of  the  Portsmouth  Group  and  that  above  the  mouth  of  Tygart 
River  (which  by  an  odd  error  is  marked  ''  Tiger  Creek  "  on  the 
map)  are  several  mounds  which  are  omitted  from  the  general  plan. 
One  of  these  is  represented  in  figure  20  [S.  &  D.,  fig.  19,  p.  82.] 


Figure  20.— Mound  with  encircling  ditch  and  embankment,  Greenup  County.  Ky. 

"  It  consists  of  an  embankment  of  earth  five  feet  high  by  thirty  feet 
base,  with  an  interior  ditch  twenty-five  feet  across  by  six  feet  deep,  enclos- 
ing an  area  ninety  feet  in  diameter,  in  the  center  of  which  rises  a  mound 
eight  feet  high  by  forty  feet  base."  It  serves  as  a  type  of  hundreds  of 
similar  structures  in  the  mound-building  area ;  the  opening  in  this  is  to 
the  south,  but  it  is  usually  toward  the  east.  The  wall  and  ditch  are  ter- 
minated on  each  side  of  the  gateway,  so  that  entrance  is  on  the  natural 
surface.  —  S.  &  D.,  82. 

The  best  and  most  accurate  account  of  the  lower  group  of  the 
Portsmouth  Works  which  has  yet  been  printed,  is  that  by  Lewis. 
A  map  accompanies  the  account.  He  finds  the  total  area  actually 
Covered  by  artificial  work  in  this  group  to  be  about  nine  acres 
and  the  cubic  contents  approximately  42,000  cubic  yards.  He 
corrects  certain  errors  of  Squier  and  Davis  in  calling  artificial 
some  ravines  and  eminences  of  natural  formation. —  Lew^is, 
Fort,  375. 


The  Barnes  Works.  179 

The  walls  of  this  enclosure,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  heavier 
than  those  of  any  other  of  work  in  a  similar  situation.  It  is 
plainly  not  a  defensive  structure,  because  the  south  corner  runs 
over  a  natural  knoll  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  its  inner  slope 
continuous  with  the  slope  of  the  terrace.  There  is  an  easy 
approach  from  the  outside,  while  on  the  inside  the  wall  is  steep 
as  earth  will  lie,  and  more  than  twenty  feet  in  vertical  height. 

WORKS  IN  PIKE  COUNTY. 

The  work  on  the  Barnes  farm,  in  Seal  (now  Scioto)  town- 
ship, five  miles  below  Piketon,  is  shown  in  figure  21  [S.  &  D.,  66, 
plate  XXIV.] 

"It  consists  principally  of  *  *  *  the  square  and  the  circle;  the 
former  measuring  in  this  instance  a  little  upwards  of  eight  hundred  feet 
upon  each  side,  the  latter  ten  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter.  They 
are  connected  by  parallel  walls,  four  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  long, 
placed  one  hundred  feet  apart.  These  are  intersected  by  a  runway, 
which  has  here  cut  a  passage  in  the  terrace  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
feet  wide  by  fifteen  deep.  *  *  ^  We  have  here  the  square,  the  circle, 
and  the  ellipse,  separate  and  in  combination, — all  of  them  constructed 
with  geometric  accuracy.  *  *  *  Nothing  can  surpass  the  symmetry  of 
the  small  work  A.  *  *  *  The  work  D  consists  of  a  small  circle,  from 
which  leads  off  a  wall,  extending  along  the  brow  of  the  terrace  bank, 
until  the  latter  turns,  nearly  at  right  angles,  towards  the  north."  —  S.  & 

D.,  m. 

There  are  several  errors  in  this  description.  ^  is  a  circular 
embankment  around  a  square  level  area;  but  the  ditch,  so  far 
from  being  narrow  and  touching  the  circle  only  at  the  corners 
(see  figure  22,  which  is  reproduced  from  the  cut  in  their  text), 
reaches  the  outer  embankment  all  around.  In  other  words,  the 
outside  line  of  the  ditch  is  a  circle,  while  the  inside  is  a  square. 

In  their  Plate  XXXIII,  No.  IB,  Squier  and  Davis  show  a 
work  near  Mount  Sterling,  Kentucky  which  is  precisely  like 
their  figure  of  the  circle  A.  Whether  it  is  correctly  represented 
in  the  cut,  or  whether  the  two  are  of  the  same  nature  there  is  no 
means  of  knowing.  At  any  rate  the  former  is  associated  with 
other  works  which  are  more  closely  allied  in  form  with  the 
works  farther  south  than  with  anything  in  Ohio. 

The  section  e-f  in  "  Ancient  Monuments  "  is  wrong ;  there 
was  never  any  wall  here,  although  there  is  a  ditch  terminated  at 
the  east  by  an  embankment,  as  shown.  A  narrow  strip  south  of  the 
ditch  is  of  the  same  general  level  as  the  field  north  of  it.     East 


180 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


ANCIENT   WORKS 


Pike  County, Ohio 

scAt-e 


Figure  21.— Enclosures  five  miles  below  Piketon. 


Works  in  Pike  and  Ross  Counties.  181 

of  the  circle  i^  is  a  small  ravine  resulting  from  the  wash  of  a 
pathway  established  here  for  the  purpose  of  ascending  and 
descending  the  bank.  The  half  circle  beyond  has  been  somewhat 
reduced  from  its  original  size,  by  the  caving  off  of  the  gravel 
bank  on  which  it  stands. 

The  square  measures  854  feet  east  and  west  by  852  feet  north 
and  south.  The  parallels  are  only  68  feet  apart;  the  eastern 
one  measures  647  feet,  the  western  621  feet,  to  the  circle.  From 
the  square  to  the  ravine  is  427  feet  for  the  eastern  wall,  and 
400  for  the  western.  The  ravine  is  no  feet  wide.  All  these 
figures,  which  are  correct,  vary  considerably  from  those  of  Squier 


..^^bk. 


-:^^-£^ 


— ^-r-  -^^y^,Sv^j^-f=^^^:^-^^-^-^ 


^r^^^; '^im; 


Figure  22.— Ditch  and  Embankment,  incorrectly  drawn.    Pike  County. 

and  Davis.    The  large  circle  is  so  nearly  destroyed  by  cultivation, 
that  it  can  no  longer  be  traced  with  certainty. 

WORKS  IN  ROSS  COUNTY. 

The  most  interesting  archaeological  district  in  the  State, 
is  comprised  in  Ross  county.  There  is  no  single  group  which 
equals  the  one  at  Newark;  but  if  the  combinations  of  square  and 
circle  occurring  in  several  parts  of  the  county  were  brought 
together,  as  are  the  two  at  Newark,  they  would  cover  a  much 
larger  area  and  present  features  of  greater  interest.  Squier 
and  Davis  say 

"Not  far  from  one  hundred  enclosures  of  various  sizes,  and  five 
hundred  mounds,  are  found  in  Ross  county,  Ohio.  The  number  of 
tumuli  in  the  state  may  be  safely  estimated  at  ten  thousand  and  the 
number  of  enclosures  at  one  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred."  —  S.  &  D.,  4. 


182 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


They  were  too  modest  in  their  estimate  of  Ross.    The  entire 
number  of  such  remains  is  probably  not  less  than  one  thousand. 


Figure  23  — Twelve  Miles  of  the  Scioto  Valley. 

This  may  seem  extravagant.  But  let  the  reader  examine  figure 
22,  [S.  &  D.,  plate  II]  "Twelve  miles  of  the  Scioto  Valley", 
and  figure  24  [S.  &  D.,  plate  III,  pt.  1]   "Six  miles  of  Paint 


Ross  County  Enclosures. 


18a 


184  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Creek  Valley " ;  let  him  remember  that,  owing  to  the  small 
scale  on  which  these  are  constructed,  scores  of  mounds  and 
other  works  had  to  be  omitted ;  finally,  let  him  bear  in  mind  that 
these  maps  show  only  a  small  portion  of  the  county  and  that 
much  of  the  remainder  is  dotted  with  these  remains; — and  he 
will  be  willing  to  concede  that  one  thousand  is  a  moderate  claim. 
Only  the  principal  groups  will  be  here  considered ;  first  those 
near  the  river,  then  those  in  Paint  Valley. 

HARNESS    WORKS. 

Figure  25  [S.  &  D.,  56,  plate  XX]  is  a  reproduction  of 
Squier  and  Davis's  survey  of  the  "  Liberty  Township  Works  "  on 
the  Harness  farm  eight  miles  south  of  Chillicothe.  The  pointer  on 
their  map  should  be  turned  90  degrees  to  the  left.  As  the  drawing 
is  given  here,  the  top  is  toward  the  east.     The  authors  say : — 

"  This  work  is  a  fair  type  of  a  singular  series  occurring  in  the  Scioto 
valley, —  all  of  which  have  the  same  figures  in  combination,  although 
occupying  different  positions  with  respect  to  each  other,  viz.,  a  square 
and  two  circles.  These  figures  are  not  only  accurate  squares  and  perfect 
circles,  but  are  in  most  cases  of  corresponding  dimensions, —  that  is  to 
say,  the  sides  of  each  of  the  squares  are  each  ten  hundred  and  eighty 
feet  in  length;  and  the  diameter  of  each  of  the  large  and  small  circles, 
a  fraction  over  seventeen  hundred  and  eight  hundred  feet  respectively. 
*  *  *  It  will  be  observed,  that  while  the  wall  of  the  larger  circle  is 
interrupted  by  numerous  narrow  gateways,  that  of  the  smaller  one  is 
entire  throughout, — a  feature  for  which  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to 
assign  a  reason.  *  *  *  The  whole  work  appears  to  have  been  partly 
finished,  or  constructed  in  great  haste.  *  *  *  No  one  would  be  apt 
to  ascribe  a  defensive  origin  to  this  work,  yet  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
for  what  other  purpose  a  structure  of  such  dimensions,  embracing  nearly 
one  hundred  acres,  could  have  been  designed."  —  S.  &  D.,  56. 

In  another  place,  after  describing  the  many  striking  resem- 
blances in  area  and  other  properties  to  be  observed  in  the  works 
at  Newark,  Hopetown,  High  Bank,  and  Marietta,  they  say 

"  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  numerous  coincidences  are  the 
result  of  accident."  —  S.  &  D.,  71. 

It  can  not  be  too  often  or  too  strongly  impressed  on  the 
reader  that  these  "coincidences,"  so  often  given  and  referred  to 
in  their  text,  have  no  existence  in  the  works  themselves.  The 
larger  circle  of  this  group  is  plowed  level,  and  no  measure- 
ments could  be  obtained.  The  square  is  nearly  obliterated,  mak- 
ing any   estimate  of   its   angles   or   dimensions   unsafe;   but   it 


The  Liberty  Township,  or  Harness  Works.  185 


' 

•^e- 


>ArEA  4.0  ACRt.9 

Diameter    f  7  Soft 


^UPPteMEr/TARY 


HAHNE^SS   GROUP 

Ross  County,  OhJo 

SCALC 


Figure  25  —  The  "Liberty  Township  Works"  of  Squier  and  Davis. 


186  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

appears  to  vary  considerably  from  ''accuracy."  The  smaller 
circle,  however,  is  all  in  woodland  or  pasture,  and  could  be  sur- 
veyed without  difficulty.  Under  the  impression  that  this  was. 
the  hypothetical  figure  given  by  Squire  and  Davis  (see  page  56) 
as  absolute  proof  of  the  uniformity  of  curve,  especial  care  was 
taken  in  its  measurements. 

The  diameter,  it  is  true,  is  given  in  their  plate  as  800  feet,, 
while  the  supposed  "perfect  circle"  had,  according  to  their  text, 
a  circumference  of  3,600  feet ;  or,  as  it  was  platted,  circumscribed, 
a  dodecagon  of  3,600  feet  perimeter.  It  was  evident  from  this 
that  an  error  existed  somewhere,  which  we  hoped  to  locate.  The 
result  of  the  survey  is  shown  in  figure  26. 

Stakes  were  set  100  feet  apart  along  the  middle  line  of  the 
embankment,  beginning  at  the  south  side  of  the  gateway.  The 
bearing  of  each  stake  was  then  taken  from  the  one  next  preced- 
ing. Had  the  curve  been  regular,  as  claimed  by  the  authors, 
each  angle  of  divergence,  to  the  last  one,  would  have  been  the 
same.    Instead  of  that,  they  read  as  follows : 

21°  35^;  8°  09\-  20°  SV;  4°  45\  10°  44^  17°  16^  17°  ST; 
11°  35\-  18°  35^;  14°  43^;  13°  54^;  19°  28\-  13°  13\  17°  18^  14° 
29^;  7°  30\  2°  36\  5°  5?,  25°  19^  19°  Or;  12°  55^  8°  48\ 

There  wxre  twenty-two  full  chains,  making  2200  feet.  The 
last  chord,  from  station  23  to  station  24,  at  the  end  of  the  wall 
was  thirty  feet,  making  the  angle  of  divergence  much  smaller 
than  it  would  have  been  with  a  full  chord.  The  wall  terminated 
abruptly  at  station  1;  as  this  portion  is  in  land  on  which  the 
original  timber  is  standing,  there  can  be  no  presumption  that  it 
ever  extended  farther,  although  in  the  original  survey  it  is  rep- 
resented as  reaching  in  an  unbroken  line  to  the  gateway  or  open- 
ing and  thence  to  the  larger  circle ;  as  shown  by  the  dotted  lines 
in  figure  26.  From  station  1  to  station  24  the  distance  is  313, 
feet,  making  the  entire  circuit,  by  this  system  of  short  chords, 
2,543  feet.  Measured  exactly  on  the  circle,  with  allowance  for 
curvature,  this  figure  would  have  been  slightly  larger.  It  is  only 
thirty  feet  in  excess  of  the  circumference  of  a  true  circle  with  a 
diameter  of  800  feet ;  which  goes  to  show  that  Squier  and  Davis 
merely  ran  a  line  around  the  embankment,  called  the  work  a 
''perfect  circle,"  and  made  the  diameter  800  feet  for  even  figures. 
In  a  "perfect  circle"  of  this  size,  each  reading  of  the  compass  at 


An  Example  of  Mathematical  Accuracy. 


18T 


intervals  of  lOO  feet  would  show  a  deviation  of  a  little  more  than 
fourteen  degrees. 
Yet  they  say 

"The  greatest  care  has,  in  all  cases,  been  taken  to  secure  perfect 
fidelity  in  all  essential  particulars."  —  S.  &  D.,  10. 


1  -'-  <Sy<y 


Mi 


m 


^^ 


as  %, 


/mm] 


#^^ 


Figure  26.— Correct  outline  of  smaller  circle  in  figure  25. 


HIGH    BANKS   WORKS. 

The  works  at  High  Banks,  four  miles  below  Chillicothe,  are 
shown  in  figure  2y  (S.  &  D.,  50,  plate  XVI). 

The  octagon  measures  950  feet,  the  circle  1,050  feet  in  diameter,' 
the  former  is  not  strictly  regular,  although  its  alternate  angles  are  coin- 
cident and  its  sides  equal,  but  the  circle  is  a  perfect  one.  "  The  walls  of 
the  octagon  are  very  bold;  and  where  they  have  been  least  subjected  to 
cultivation,  are  now  between  eleven  and  twelve  feet  in  height,  by  about 
fifty  feet  base.  The  wall  of  the  circle  is  much  less,  nowhere  measuring 
over  four  or  five  feet  in  altitude.  *  *  *  About  half  a  mile  to  the  southward, 
and  connected  with  this  work  by  lines  of  embankment,  much  reduced  but 


188 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


SCALL      FT. 


Figure   27  — Works   at   High   Banks. 


Works  at  High  Banks. 


189- 


still  traceable,  is  a  small  group  of  works,  partially  destroyed  by  the  river. 
A  fourth  of  a  mile  below  this  subordinate  group,  on  the  bank  of  the. 
terrace,  is  a  large  truncated  mound,  thirty  feet  in  height."  —  S.  &  D.,  50. 

The  statement  that  a  part  of  the  lower  group  was  "partially 
destroyed  by  the  river"  is  a  mistake.     The  line  B,  which  appears. 

4  r 


Figure  28  —  Octagon  at  High  Banks. 

to  be  the  residue  of  a  complete  circle  originally  extending  over 
a  portion  of  the  terrace  now  washed  away,  was  built  thus  to  reach 
the  bank,  which  was  then  about  where  it  is  now. 

There  is  no  mound,  such  as  they  describe,  anywhere  about 
these  works.  It  is  possible  that  what  they  call  such  is  only  one 
of  the  natural  knolls  occurring  in  that  vicinity. 

In  figure  28  (B.  E.  12,  478,  plate  XXXVIII)  the  octagon 


190  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

is  correctly  shown.  The  irregularity  at  the  southern  corner  is 
due  to  a  depression  which  would  interfere  with  easy  approach. 
The  opposite  sides  and  angles  are  tolerably  regular.  One  diameter 
is  1, 008  feet,  the  other  1,005  ^^^t;  the  included  area  is  20.6  acres. 
It  is  possible  Squier  and  Davis  measured  entirely  within  the  walls ; 
but  in  the  adjoining  circle  their  figures  plainly  refer  to  the  top 
of  the  embankment. 

The  circular  enclosure  is  almost  geometrical  in  its  accuracy ; 
a  radius  of  526  feet  will  describe  a  circle  which  will  nowhere  miss 
the  middle  line  of  the  embankment  more  than  six  feet. 

WORKS  AT  CHILLICOTHE. 

Figure  29  (S.  &  D.,  57,  plate  XXI,  No.  3)  shows  a  group 
which  was  located  just  east  of  the  corporate  limits  of  Chillicothe. 
Owing  to  the  encroachments  of  the  city,  it  has  entirely  disap- 
peared. It  is  not  likely  that  either  the  square  or  the  circle  was 
ever  complete,  as  indicated,  though  such  may  have  been  the  case. 
A  few  floods  would  suffice  to  throw  down  so  much  of  the  terrace 
as  would  have  afforded  room  to  extend  the  work  on  the  dotted 
lines.  Large  sums  are  now  expended  annually  in  these  valleys  for 
levees,  piling,  etc.,  to  prevent  damage  from  freshets.  In  spite 
of  such  precautions  the  swollen  streams  sometimes  work  great 
destruction.    The  case  must  have  been  the  same  in  early  times. 

WORK  AT  FRANKFORT. 

Figure  30  (S.  &  D.,  57,  plate  XXI,  No.  4)  represents  a 
work  on  the  site  of  Frankfort.  Very  little  of  it  is  now  to  be 
found.  The  creek  still  washes  against  the  slope  above  which 
the  circle  terminates,  so  it  may  once  have  been  unbroken. 

THE  HOPETOWN  WORKS. 

The  Hopetown  works,  as  platted  by  Squier  and  Davis,  are 
presented  in  figure  31  (S.  &  D.,  51,  plate  XVII.) 

"  They  consist  of  a  rectangle,  with  an  attached  circle,  the  latter  ex- 
tending into  the  former,  instead  of  being  connected  with  it  in  the  usual 
manner.  The  rectangle  measures  nine  hundred  and  fifty  by  nine  hundred 
feet,  and  the  circle  is  ten  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter.  *  *  * 
The  chord  of  that  part  of  the  circle  interior  to  the  rectangle  is  five  hundred 
and  thirty  feet.  *  *  *  The  walls  of  the  rectangular  works  are  composed 
of  a  clayey  loam,  twelve  feet  high  by  fifty  feet  base.     *    *    *    f^e  ^^H 


Enclosures  in  Ross  County. 


191 


/v^/yf^   <?as/   of   \.^ 
iM/LLICOTHE^OHIO     ^^^^ 

SCALE 


/ooo  F-esr 


FRANKFORT  WORKd 
Ross  Co.  Ohio 

■SCALE 


Painf  CteekMrthFor, 


lOOO  FECT 


Figures    29    and    30. 


192 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


}    o 


hOPETON   WORKS 

/?055  Covnfy,  0/t/o. 


Figure   31. 


The  Works  at  Hopetown.  193 

of  the  great  circle  *  *  *  although  much  reduced  of  late  years  by  the 
plough,  is  still  about  five  feet  in  average  height.  *  *  *  It  is  built  of 
clay,  which  differs  strikingly  in  respect  of  color  from  the  surrounding 
soil.  *  *  *  In  the  bank  of  the  table  land  *  *  *  are  several  ex- 
cavations, d,  d,  d,  from  which  large  quantities  of  the  earth  have  been 
taken,  though  much  less,  apparently,  than  enters  into  the  composition 
of  the  embankments.  From  the  height  and  solidity  of  the  walls,  it  might 
be  inferred  that  this  was  a  work  of  defence.  But  its  position,  in  respect 
to  the  third  terrace  which  commands  it,  strongly  opposes  that  conclusion. 
Still,  this  objection  would  not  be  insuperable,  could  we  suppose  that  the 
walls  were  palisaded."  —  S.  &  D.,  51. 

As  usual,  there  are  various  errors  in  these  measurements. 
Compare  the  plan  and  figures  just  given,  with  those  of  a  careful 
survey  made  for  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology.  The  square  is  cor- 
rectly shown  in  figure  32  (B.  E.,  12,  472,  plate  XXXV),  and 
the  circle  in  figure  33  (same,  XXXVI).  Instead  of  being  con- 
nected by  parallel  lines  as  is  usual  in  this  class  of  enclosures,  the 
two  are  coincident  for  a  considerable  distance,  the  circle  forming 
most  of  the  north  side  of  the  square.  It  will  be  observed  that 
in  the  so-called  '*  square  "  no  side  is  straight.  Among  the  thir- 
teen angles,  not  including  the  broken  part  of  the  circle  at  the 
north,  there  is  not  one  within  three  degrees  of  a  right  angle. 
i\Ieasuring  in  straight  lines  between  the  intersections  forming  the 
corners  of  the  "square,"  the  lengths  of  the  sides  are  957,  791,  962, 
and  825  feet. 

The  circle  was  surveyed  by  100- foot  chords  on  the  middle 
line  of  the  embankment;  the  angles  varied  from  159  degrees  20 
minutes,  to  178  degrees  4  minutes;  only  two  were  identical  (172 
degrees  12  minutes),  and  these  were  four  stations  apart.  The 
polygon  thus  described  had  thirty  sides  of  100  feet  each  and 
one  side  of  98  feet.  In  a  regular  polygon  having  31  sides  each 
measuring  100  feet,  or  only  two  feet  greater  altogether  than  the 
one  in  question,  each  interior  angle  is  very  nearly  168  degrees 
23  minutes  13  seconds.  The  east  and  west  diameter  is  1,018 
feet;  that  north  and  south  960  feet.  The  included  area  is  a 
little  less  than  18  acres,  or  about  the  same  as  that  of  a  regular 
circle  with  the  mean  diameter  of  989  feet.  The  circle,  at  least, 
could  not  be  defensive,  as  it  reaches  slightly  up  on  the  slope  of 
the  upper  terrace  which  is  between  30  and  40  feet  higher.  Con- 
sequently an  enemy  could  easily  have  thrown  arrows  or  even 

13 


194 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


spears  into  the  enclosure,  for  palisades  could  scarcely  have 
been  made  so  high  as  to  afford  protection.  It  would  have  been 
easier  to  build  the  wall  farther  out.    All  the  walls  are  made  of 


Figure    82  —  The    "Square"    at    Hopetown. 

the  material  near  by  —  sand,  clay,  loam,  and  gravel,  mixed ;  prob- 
ably much  of  it  was  taken  from  the  terrace  bluff  just  above. 
Had  clay  been  wanted,  it  could  have  been  procured  in  abundance 
at  a  short  distance. 


An  Irregular  Circle. 


195 


In  the  "  Portfolio,"  Vol.  II,  No.  5,  November,  1809,  op- 
posite page  419,  there  is  a  cut  of  the  Hopetown  works.  The 
parallel  walls  are  represented  as  being  connected  with  the  circle 
on  each  side  of  a  gateway  in  a  line  with  the  west  side  of  the 
square.  At  the  other  end,  the  walls  are  similarly  connected 
with  another  circle,  about  the  size  of  that  at  the  southeast  corner 
of  the  square.     The  smaller  circle  has  no  other  opening  than 


Figure  33  —  The  "Circle"  at  Hopetown. 

that  leading  out  between  the  parallels.  This  small  circle  had 
evidently  been  destroyed  by  the  river  between  1809  and  1845 ; 
for  the  survey  of  Squier  and  Davis,  about  the  latter  time,  rep- 
resents the  walls  as  terminating  at  the  brink  of  a  low  terrace- 
bank.  This  is  another  evidence  that  "  encroachment  "  does  not 
guarantee  "  antiquity." 


196 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


CEDAR-dANH  WORKS 

/foss  Counfy^  0/7/0, 


Figure   34. 


WORK  AT  CEDAR  BANKS. 


The  "  Cedar  Banks  "  work,  four  miles  north  of  ChilHcothe, 
is  shown  in  figure  34  (S.  &  D.,  52,  plate  XVIII). 

"  The  walls  of  this  work  are  about  six  feet  high  by  forty  feet  base  ; 
the  ditch  five  feet  deep  by  forty  wide.     The  ditch  upon  the  longer  or 


The  Cedar  Banks  Square.  197 

eastern  side  is  formed,  for  two-thirds  of  its  length,  by  a  'runway'  or 
water-course.  It  is  here  from  eight  to  tea  feet  deep.  The  wall  upon  this 
side  is  fourteen  hundred  feet  long.  The  northern  and  southern  walls 
are  each  ten  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  and  placed  at  right  angles 
to  the  first.  *  *  *  Covering  the  northern  gate-way,  and  two  hundred 
feet  interior  to  it,  is  an  elevated  square,  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long 
by  one  hundred  and  fifty  broad,  and  four  feet  high.  It  is  ascended  from 
the  ends  by  graded  ways,  thirty  feet  broad,  and  in  all  respects  resembles 
the  truncated  pyramids  or  'elevated  squares'  of  the  Marietta  works."  — 
S.  &  D.,  52. 

"  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  gully  or  '  wash  '  towards  the  river 
was  originally  a  graded  way  to  the  water,  and  that  its  present  irregularity 
has  been  occasioned  by  the  rains  and  storms  of  centuries."  —  S.  &  D.,  54. 

It  is  apparent  from  the  plate  that  when  this  work  was  con- 
structed, the  river  flowed  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff  on  which  it 
stands.  At  present  there  is  a  low,  overflow  bottom  interven- 
ing, covered  by  quick-growing  trees  of  no  great  size,  whereas 
there  lately  stood  on  the  embankment  a  white  oak  nearly  five 
feet  in  diameter.  The  supposed  "  graded  way  "  is  only  a  natural 
ravine;  it  no  doubt  formed  a  passage-way  when  the  enclosure 
was  inhabited,  but  it  is  now  more  difficult  to  ascend  than  the 
steep  bank  to  either  side.  When  the  river  flowed  at  the  foot 
of  the  bank,  the  face  presented  an  exposure  of  clean  gravel 
which  was  inaccessible.  For  this  reason  there  was  no  necessity 
for  a  wall  along  the  west  side. 

As  no  recent  survey  has  been  made,  the  angles  at  the  corners 
and  the  length  of  the  sides  can  not  be  stated.  There  is  an  interval 
of  25  or  30  feet  between  the  end  of  the  north  wall  and  the  brink 
of  the  terrace.  The  end  of  the  south  wall  has  been  worn  away, 
but  to  what  extent  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  The  river 
may  have  encroached  on  it,  or  the  surface  drainage  through 
the  ditch  at  its  foot  may  have  undermined  it  by  washing  away 
the  soil  and  loose  gravel  on  which  it  is  built.  The  river  is  now 
much  farther  away  than  represented  in  Squier  and  Davis's  cut. 
Along  the  eastern  side  the  natural  slope  is  toward  the  north; 
but  the  ravine  called  "  Dry  Run "  is  subsequent  in  its  origin 
to  the  earthwork.  The  ditch  on  the  north  side  having  no  outlet 
towards  the  river,  its  waters  united  with  those  of  the  east  ditch 
and  cut  a  passage  through  the  low  ground  to  Prairie  Run  a  few 
rods  to  the  north.  More  earth  seems  to  have  been  taken  from 
the  east  ditch  than  from  the  others — probably  to  construct  the 
mound.     The  latter  has  been  cultivated  until  its  outline  is  no 


198  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

longer  traceable.  The  main  walls  were  intact  until  within  a  few 
years;  but  they  are  now  cultivated  and  their  symmetry  will  soon 
be  destroyed. 

The  rectangular  enclosure  east  of  the  square  is  870  feet 
long  and  70  feet  broad.  It  has  been  compared  to  the  Cherokee 
"  chung-kee  yards  ",  but  it  is  not  level ;  the  northern  end  is  several 
feet  lower  than  the  southern,  and  the  slope  of  the  space  within 
is  not  uniform. 

The  topography  about  the  square  mound  south  of  the  enclos- 
ure is  incorrectly  represented  in  the  plan  of  Squier  and  Davis. 

They  say 

"  The  headland  upon  which  [it]  is  situated  seems  to  have  been  ar- 
tificially smoothed  and  rounded."  —  S.  &  D.,  53. 

But  the  point  on  which  it  stands  is  of  natural  formation, 
no  more  smooth  and  rounded  than  many  others  along  the  ter- 
races; neither  does  it  extend  so  far  outwardly  as  to  reach  the 
lower  terrace,  as  they  represent  it,  being  terminated  by  ravines 
on  either  side. 

*""  MOUND  CITY  ". 

The  "  Mound  City  "  of  Squier  and  Davis,  within  whose  walls 
they  made  their  famous  find  of  pipes,  is  shown  in  figure  35  (S.  & 
D.,  54,  plate  XIX). 

"  In  outline  it  is  nearly  a  square,  with  rounded  angles,  and  consists 
of  a  simple  embankment,  between  three  and  four  feet  high  unaccompanied 
by  a  ditch,  *  *  *  There  are  no  less  than  twenty-four  [mounds]  within 
its  walls.  All  of  these  *  *  *  have  been  excavated,  and  the  principal 
ones  found  to  contain  altars  and  other  remains,  which  put  it  beyond 
question  that  they  were  places  of  sacrifice  or  of  superstitious  origin.  *  *  * 
We  are  certainly  well  warranted  in  classing  this  as  a  sacred  work."  "To 
the  south  is  another  work  of  somewhat  similar  outline,  but  of  larger  size. 
*  *  Uulike  the  works  obviously  of  sacred  origin,  which,  if  they  possess 
a  ditch  at  all,  have  it  interior  to  the  wall,  this  has  an  outer  fosse;  a  cir- 
cumstance which  would  seem  to  favor  the  suggestion  of  a  defensive 
origin.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  a  mound  very  nearly  if  not  exactly  in 
its  centre,  which  was  clearly  a  place  of  sacrifice."  —  S.  &  D.,  54. 

Although  the  text  says  there  are  24  mounds,  only  23  are 
shown  in  the  engraving ;  while  on  page  144  the  authors  say  there 
are  26.  So  far  from  being  of  ''  similar  outline  ",  a  glance  will 
show  that  the  work  to  the  south  approaches  more  nearly  to  the 
outline  of  some  works  denominated  by  them  "  perfect  circles  '^, 
than  it  does  to  the  shape  of  the  ''  square  ". 


The  Group  at  "Mound  City.' 


199 


ANCIENT  W0RK6 

J~ioS5  County,  Ohio 

SCALE 
SOC  rECT 


Figure  35  — "Mound   City." 
WORK  AT  DUNLAP'S. 


The  group  shown  in  figure  36  (S.  &  D.,  63,  plate  XXIII, 
No.  1),  known  as  "  Dunlap's  Works"  and 


m> 


ArathQeohgicai  History  of  Ohio. 


OUNLAF  WOHHS 
f^e99  Coi^ntxt  Ohio 


SOA 


nry 
4/ 


tOro    .f.j^xf  J^^-:^-^ 


Figtm  3«w 


Enchsmres  m  R0U  dmmty. 


3fn 


bl/'.^//atlr  group 


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202  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Scioto  river,  six  miles  above 
Chillicothe,  *  *  is  rhomboidal  in  figure,  with  an  avenue  eleven  hundred 
and  thirty  feet  long  extending  to  the  south-east,  and  also  a  short  avenue, 
leading  from  a  gateway  to  the  north,  connecting  with  a  small  circle."  — ■ 
S.  &  D,  63. 

There  are  a  number  of  mounds  within  a  mile  of  this  group. 
It  is  very  clear  that  the  builders  of  the  work  had  no  wish  to 
construct  either  a  "  perfect  circle  "  or  an  "  accurate  square  " ; 
for  there  is  abundant  room  to  make  a  figure  of  any  form  desired, 
on  a  much  larger  scale  than  the  one  found  here. 

THE  BLACKWATER  GROUP. 

The  "  Blackwater  Group"  shown  in  figure  37  (S.  &  D.,, 
61,  No.  2) 

"is  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Scioto  river,  eight  miles  above 
Chillicothe.  It  is  especially  remarkable  for  its  singular  parallels,  A  and  B 
of  the  plan.  Each  of  these  is  seven  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  by  sixty 
broad,  measuring  from  center  to  center  of  the  embankments.  *  *  The 
ground  embraced  in  the  semi-circular  works  C  and  D  is  reduced  several 
feet  below  the  level  of  the  plain  on  which  they  are  located."  —  S.  &  D.,  63.. 

JUNCTION  GROUP. 

The  system  represented  in  figure  38  (S.  &  D.,  6t,  Plate 
XXII,  No.  1)  is  for  some  reason  called  "Junction  Group"  by 
Squier  and  Davis. 

It  is  situated  on  Paint  Creek,  two  miles  south-west  of  Chillicothe. 
Each  enclosure  "consists  of  a  wall  three  feet  high,  with  an  interior  ditch." 
"That  they  were  not  designed  for  defensive  purposes  is  obvious,  and  that 
they  were  devoted  to  religious  rites  is  more  than  probable."  They  may  have 
answered  a  double  purpose,  and  may  have  been  used  for  the  celebration  of 
games,  of  which  we  can  have  no  definite  conception.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  enclosure  A,  as  also  B  and  C,  were  occupied  by  struc- 
tures, temples  perhaps,  which  in  the  lapse  of  time  have  disappeared.  Sim- 
ilar groups  are  frequent,— indeed,  small  circles,  resembling  those  here 
represented,  constitute,  in  the  Scioto  valley,  by  far  the  most  numerous 
class  of  remains.  They  seldom  occur  singly,  but  generally  in  connection 
with  several  others  of  the  same  description,  and  accompanied  by  one  or 
more  mounds;  sometimes  they  are  connected  with  long  parallel  lines  of 
embankments."  —  S.  &  D.,  61. 


Enclosures  in  Ross  County. 


203 


Figure 


204  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


CLARK  S    WORKS^    OR   THE    HOPEWELL   GROUP. 

Figure  39  (S.  &  D.,  26,  Plate  X)  is  the  ''Clark's  Work" 
of  Squier  and  Davis,  which  is  now  better  known  as  the  "  Hope- 
well Group,"  from  the  name  of  the  present  owner.  An  abridg- 
ment of  the  description  by  Squier  and  Davis  follows : 

"  It  has  many  of  the  characteristics  of  a  work  of  defense,  and  is 
accordingly  classified  as  such,  although  differing  in  position  and  some 
other  respects  from  the  entrenched  hills.  The  minor  works  which  it  en- 
closes, or  which  are  in  combination  with  it,  are  manifestly  of  a  different 
character,  probably  religious  in  their  design,  and  would  seem  to  point 
to  the  conclusion,  that  this  was  a  fortified  town,  rather  than  a  defensive 
work  of  last  resort.  Its  general  form  is  that  of  a  parallelogram,  twenty- 
eight  hundred  feet  by  eighteen  hundred,  with  one  of  its  corners  somewhat 
rounded.  On  the  side  next  the  creek,  it  is  bounded  by  a  wall  four  feet 
high,  running  along  the  very  edge  of  the  terrace  bank,  and  conforming  to 
its  irregularities ;  these  however  are  very  slight.  Its  remaining  sides  are 
bounded  by  a  wall  and  exterior  ditch ;  the  wall  is  six  feet  high  by  thirty- 
five  feet  base,  and  the  ditch  of  corresponding  dimensions.  The  lines 
ascend  the  declivity  of  the  table  land  back  of  the  terrace,  and  extend 
along  its  brow,  dipping  into  the  ravines  and  rising  over  the  ridges  into 
which  it  has  been  cut  by  the  action  of  water.  Wherever  the  ravines  are 
of  any  considerable  depth,  the  wall  has  been  washed  away ;  but  in  all 
cases  leaving  evidences  that  it  once  extended  uninterruptedly  through. 
The  bank  of  the  terrace  is  thirty,  that  of  the  table  land  fifty  feet  in  height. 
The  area  thus  enclosed  is  one  hundred  and  eleven  acres.  To  the  right  of 
the  principal  work,  and  connecting  with  it  by  a  gateway  at  its  center,  is 
a  smaller  work  of  sixteen  acres  area.  It  is  a  perfect  square;  its  sides 
measuring  respectively  eight  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  The  walls  of  the 
smaller  work  are  much  lighter  than  those  of  the  large  one,  and  have  no 
attendant  ditch.  Within  the  area  of  the  great  work  are  two  small  ones; 
one  of  them  is  a  perfect  circle,  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter, 
bounded  by  a  single  slight  wall,  with  a  gateway  opening  to  the  west ;  the 
other  is  a  semi-circular  enclosure,  two  thousand  feet  in  circumference, 
bounded  by  a  slight  circumvallation  and  ditch.  Within  this  are  seven 
mounds;  three  of  which  are  joined  together,  forming  a  continuous  ele- 
vation thirty  feet  high  by  five  hundred  feet  long,  and  one  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  broad  at  the  base.  Nearly  all  the  mounds  examined  were 
places  of  sacrifice,  containing  altars.  Where  the  defences  descend  from 
the  table  lands  to  the  left,  is  a  gully  or  torrent-bed,  which  was  turned  by 
the  builders  from  its  natural  course  (towards  x)  into  the  ditch.  The 
slight  wall  along  the  terrace  bank  is  composed  chiefly  of  smooth,  water- 
worn  stones,  taken  from  the  creek  and  cemented  together  by  tough,  clayey 
earth.  The  wall  of  the  square  is  wholly  of  clay,  and  its  outlines  may  be 
easily  traced  by  the  eye,  from  a  distance,  from  its  color.  It  appears,  as 
do  the  embankments  of  many  other  works,  to  have  been  slightly  burned. 


Clark's  Works,  or  the  Hopczvell  Group. 


205 


That  they  have  in  some  cases  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire,  is  too 
obvious  to  admit  of  doubt.     At  the  point  2  in  the  lower  wall  of  the  square 


Figure    39. 

stones  and  large  masses  of  pebbles  and  earth,  much  burned,  are  turned 
up  by  the  plow.  The  comparative  slightness  of  the  wall  and  the  absence 
of  a  ditch,  at  the  points  possessing  natural  defences  —  the  extension  of 
the  artificial  defences  upon  the  table  lands  overlooking  and  commanding 


206  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  terrace  —  the  facilities  afforded  for  an  abundant  supply  of  water,  as 
well  as  the  large  area  enclosed,  with  its  mysterious  circles  and  sacred 
mounds  —  all  go  to  sustain  the  conclusion,  that  this  was  a  fortified  town 
or  city  of  the  ancient  people.  The  embankments  measure  together  nearly 
three  miles  in  length;  and  a  careful  computation  shows  that,  including 
mounds,  not  less  than  three  millions  cubic  feet  of  earth  were  used  in  their 
composition."  —  S.  &  D.,  26,  et  seq. 

Very  little  is  left  of  the  wall  along  the  edge  of  the  terrace 
toward  the  creek;  enough,  however,  to  show  that,  like  all  the 
other  walls,  it  is  composed  of  material  similar  to  that  on  which 
it  rests.  The  stream  is  now  fully  a  fourth  of  a  mile  away,  and 
flows  on  shale.  The  terrace  bank,  at  whose  foot  it  probably 
flowed  when  this  enclosure  was  inhabited,  is  composed  of  the 
glacial  drift  common  on  all  streams ;  instead  of  being  "  thirty 
feet  high,"  it  is  not  more  than  fifteen.  It  would  have  been  no 
great  task  to  carry  the  material  of  the  wall  from  its  slope. 

The  "  clay  "  of  the  other  portions  of  the  embankment  is  of 
the  same  nature  as  that  in  the  fields  around.  The  darker  earth, 
due  to  decay  of  vegetation,  washes  off  of  the  upper  part  of  eleva- 
tions, and  accumulates  around  their  base;  the  difference  in  color 
is  sometimes  quite  pronounced,  and  so  has  led  to  the  supposition 
that  material  for  the  earthworks  came  from  some  other  locality. 

It  is  impossible  at  this  late  day  either  to  verify  or  contradict 
their  calculation  of  the  amount  of  earth  heaped  up. 

WORKS   OPPOSITE   BOURNEVILLE. 

In  Figure  40  (S.  &  D.,  57,  Plate  XXI,  No.  1)  is  seen  the 
work  on  the  Baum  farm  opposite  Bourneville.  The  "hills"  to 
the  right  are  composed  of  gravel  and  sand  of  glacial  origin 
probably  marking  the  limit  here  of  the  ice-sheet.  A  bold  spring 
rising  in  them  sends  a  perennial  stream  toward  the  junction  of 
the  square  and  the  larger  circle.  This  and  surface  drainage 
have  carried  down  sufficient  of  the  loose  material  from  above  to 
obliterate  all  traces  of  the  wall  and  excavated  areas  at  this  point. 

The  square  in  this  group  is  nearly  exact ;  the  greatest  varia- 
tion, at  any  corner,  from  a  right  angle  is  only  47 ' ;  the  difiference 
between  the  longest  and  the  shortest  side  is  twelve  feet. 

WORKS    NEAR    BAINBRIDGE. 

One  of  the  largest  works  in  the  Scioto  valley  is  that  shown 
in  Figure  41   (S.  &  D.,  57,  Plate  XXI,  No.  2).     It  is  in  Paint 


Enclosures  in  Ross  County. 


207 


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S/^i/M  WORK6 

/?06S  Coor7fy,Ohio. 

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Figures    40    and    41. 


208  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

creek  bottoms  about  three  miles  east  of  Bainbridge.  Much  of 
the  Hne  of  embankment  is  very  heavy.  According  to  Squier  and 
Davis,  the  eUiptical  mound  is  "  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  long 
by  one  hundred  and  sixty  broad,  and  thirty  feet  in  height/'  The 
last  measure  is  greatly  exaggerated ;  the  mound  is  not  more  than 
twenty  feet  high,  and  being  still  covered  with  the  original  timber, 
it  cannot  have  appreciably  lowered  since  their  time.  They  also 
say  that  "  several  very  large  and  beautiful  mounds,  composed 
entirely  of  clay,  occur  about  one-fourth  of  a  mile  distant."  These 
mounds  are  of  the  ordinary  earth  around  them;  one,  in  fact,  is 
mostly  sand  and  is  much  worn  by  the  weather.  The  usual  mea- 
sure of  "  ten  hundred  and  eighty  feet  "  is  given  as  the  length 
of  each  side  of  the  square ;  the  south  wall  of  this  is  now  destroyed, 
but  a  measure  of  i,o8o  feet  from  the  ends  of  the  north  wall,  along 
the  east  and  west  sides,  will  terminate  in  the  thoroughfare  which, 
according  to  their  illustration  (Plate  XXI,  No.  2),  cuts  across  the 
square. 

WORKS    AT    CIRCLEVILLE. 

One  group  of  the  larger  enclosures  was  situated  north  of 
Ross  county. 

There  was  formerly  a  square  connected  by  parallel  lines 
with  a  circular  enclosure,  on  the  site  of  Circleville;  the  town 
takes  its  name  from  having  made  its  beginning  within  the  latter. 
This  enclosure  was  peculiar  in  consisting  of  two  concentric 
embankments,  with  a  ditch  between  them;  the  only  case  of  the 
kind  in  the  Scioto  valley.  All  these  works  are  now  entirely 
destroyed.  Before  they  were  defaced,  two  quite  opposite  views 
were  held  as  to  their  purpose. 

"  The  square  has  such  a  number  of  gateways,  as  seem  intended  to 
facilitate  the  entrance  of  those  who  would  attack  it.  And  both  it  and  the 
circle  were  completely  commanded  by  the  mound,  rendering  it  an  easier 
matter  to  take,  than  defend  it."  —  Harrison,  225. 

"  The  round  fort  was  picketed  in,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  appear- 
ance of  the  ground  on  and  about  the  walls.  Half  way  up  the  outside  of  the 
inner  wall,  is  a  place  distinctly  to  be  seen,  where  a  row  of  pickets  once 
stood,  and  where  it  was  placed  when  this  work  of  defence  was  originally 
erected."  —  Atwater,  145. 

A  zealous  advocate  of  the  recent  origin  of  mounds,  has  inter- 
preted this  statement  to  mean  that  Atwater  saw  the  pickets  in 
position.  But  it  is  clear  that  he  refers  only  to  a  break,  or  step,  in 
the  slope. 


The  Miami  Region.  209 

On  review,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  larger  square  and  cir- 
cular works  in  combination,  ordinarily  termed  "  sacred  enclos- 
ures," on  which  have  been  built  up  such  thrilling  stories  of  a 
"  high  culture,"  with  all  its  attendant  elements  of  ''advanced 
knowledge,"  "  central  government,"  ''  ruling  priesthood,"  ''  cen- 
ters of  modern  population,"  etc.,  etc.,  in  the  Mississippi  valley 
in  prehistoric  times,  are  just  eleven  in  number ;  the  Marietta  group 
having  no  circle.  Seven  of  these  are  on  farming  land,  at  least 
three  miles  from  the  nearest  village  of  a  thousand  inhabitants. 
Two  of  them  are  at  the  little  towns  of  Frankfort  and  Circleville. 
The  remaining  two  are  at  Newark  and  Chillicothe,  neither  of 
which  can  claim  to  be  much  of  a  "  city."  The  works  which  do 
occur  at  or  near  larger  places  are  not  of  the  same  character  as 
the  enclosures  in  question.  The  identity  of  measurements,  the 
uniformity  of  curves,  the  exactness  of  angles,  do  not  exist.  With 
this  removal  of  the  foundation  upon  which  the  imposing  edifice 
is  reared,  the  whole  fabric  of  a  "lost  empire  "  comes  to  earth, 
and  instead  of  a  "  civilization  "  we  see  only  a  stage  of  barbarism. 

REMAINS  IN  THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MIAMIS. 

Although  the  remains  in  the  two  Miami  valleys  are  quite 
different  in  character  from  those  characteristic  of  the  Scioto, 
and  are  less  numerous,  they  possess  as  great  interest  for  the 
archaeologist.  The  largest  mound  and  the  largest  lowland  en- 
closure in  Ohio  are  below  Dayton. 

That  some  portions  of  this  part  of  the  State  supported  a 
considerable  population  is  apparent  from  the  number  of  remains 
shown  in  Figure  42  (S.  &  D.,  Plate  III,  Part  2),  which  gives  a 
view  of  "  Six  miles  of  the  Great  Miami  valley."  There  are  other 
localities  where  as  many  earthworks  can  be  found  in  the  same 
space. 

THE   TURNER   GROUP. 

The  most  remarkable  structure  in  this  part  of  the  State  is 
that  on  the  Little  Miami  river,  between  Milford  and  Newtown, 
now  known  as  the  "  Turner  Group."  One  portion  of  the  work, 
unique  so  far  as  known,  is  thus  described. 

"  On  a  detached  ridge,  composed  of  limestone  gravel,  covered  with  a. 
clay  loam,  is  a  low  wall  nearly  in  the  form  of  a  circle.  The  average 
diameter  of  the  circle  is  four  hundred  and  seventy  feet.  Outside  of  the 
circular  figure,  there  is  a  space  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  wide,  on  the 

14 


210 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


natural  surface  of  the  ground.  On  the  two  opposite  sides  of  the  circle 
where  it  occupies  the  height  of  the  ridge,  is  an  external  ditch,  enclosing 
about  half  the  figure.  It  is  from  seventy  to  eighty-five  feet  broad  at  the 
top,  and  from  twelve  to  eighteen  feet  deep.  On  the  east  is  an  embank- 
ment or  grade  extending  by  a  gradual  slope,  from  the  enclosure  A  to  the 
plain.  It  is  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  feet  wide  where  it  joins  A,  and 
has,   at  the  edges,   raised   side-walls  like  those  made   for  pavements   in 


EXHIBITIlf»  A  SECTION  OF  SIX  MILE5 

OXEAT  MIAMI  VALLET 

irra^/  rfs  ^Incifnt  ^IforiumentJ 


Figure    42. 

cities  with  a  drain  or  gutter  inside.  The  space  between  the  sideways  is 
rounded  like  a  turnpike,  as  represented  in  the  section  dc.  Its  length  is 
six  hundred  feet.  It  reaches  to  the  next  terrace,  twenty-five  feet  lower. 
There  are  some  examples  of  graded  ways  among  the  ancient  works  of 
Ohio,  but  none  resembling  this."  —  Whittlesey,  Works,  9,  condensed. 

Putnam  describes  this  as 

*'  A  hill  through  which  two  ditches,  30  feet  deep  had  been  cut, 
separating  the  hill  into  three  parts.  On  the  hill  is  a  circle  550  feet  in 
diameter,    surrounding    two    mounds.     The    earth    from    the    ditches    was 


The  Turner  Group.  211 

used  to  make  the  graded  way  from  the  top  of  the  hill  to  the  level  land 
below.  This  graded  way  connects  with  an  embankment  of  earth  1500 
feet  in  diameter.  At  the  foot  of  the  graded  way  is  a  small  circle  enclos- 
ing a  burial  mound.  South  of  this  was  the  great  group  of  altar  mounds, 
around  each  of  which  was  a  wall  of  stones,  four  feet  high,  built  below 
the  surrounding  level  of  the  field."  —  Putnam  XX,  554. 

Professor  Putnam  is  at  fault  regarding  the  depth  of  the 
ditches.  The  knoll  (or  "  hill  "  as  he  calls  it)  is  less  than  thirty 
feet  higher  than  the  surrounding  level,  and  the  ditches  nowhere 
reach  more  than  half  the  depth,  except  near  one  end ;  some  of  the 
lowering  here  may  be  due  to  erosion. 

In  this  region  there  are  three  distinct  terraces.  The  upper- 
most is  represented  by  a  few  scattered  knolls,  most  of  it  having 
been  removed  while  the  Little  Miami  was  scouring  out  a  channel 
There  is  an  isolated  remnant  near  the  river,  having  an  elevation 
over  the  next  lower  terrace  of  nearly  thirty  feet;  and  it  is  from 
this  that  the  graded  way  descends.  The  latter  is  composed  of 
gravel  and  earth.  The  lower  portion,  as  exposed  by  a  railway  cut, 
is  plainly  of  natural  origin;  the  upper  part,  however,  is  of  soil 
of  a  different  character  from  the  material  beneath.  The  slope 
along  its  top  from  one  terrace  to  the  other,  is  gradual  but  not 
uniform;  while  the  natural  slope  of  the  banks  to  either  side  of 
it  is  quite  abrupt,  such  as  would  be  left  by  a  stream  flowing  at  its 
foot.  There  is  only  a  thin  deposit  of  soil  on  the  highest  terrace ; 
the  circle  and  included  mounds  are  of  much  coarser  material 
which,  it  is  clear,  came  from  the  deep  ditches  at  either  side. 
There  is  a  much  greater  thickness  of  soil  on  most  of  the  lower 
terrace,  a  ravine  near  by  showing  several  feet  of  silt  free  from 
gravel.  If  the  graded  way  is  built  up  from  the  lower  plain,  the 
material  composing  it  must  have  been  taken  in  part  from  the 
artificial  ditches,  and  in  part  from  the  terrace  on  which  it  stands ; 
for  while  much  gravel  is  found  on  its  surface,  the  finer  earth 
exposed  by  the  railway  cut  is  of  different  color  from  that  found 
in  the  works  above  it.  Owing  probably  to  long  cultivation  there 
is  not  now  the  slightest  trace  of  sidewalls  along  the  embank- 
ment as  described  by  Whittlesey  and  shown  by  the  model  in  the 
Cincinnati  Art  Museum ;  nor  does  it  seem  possible  that  the  amount 
of  earth  now  above  the  surface  level  could  be  so  disposed  as  to 
give  the  form  of  the  model.  The  great  change  which  can  be 
wrought  in  such  loose  material  in  a  few  years  by  farming  opera- 
tions and  by  heavy  rains  upon  freshly  plowed  ground,  render  it 


212  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

unsafe,  however,  to  advance  any  definite  opinion  in  regard  to= 
this. 

The  position  and  slope  of  the  graded  way  or  spur  are  such 
as  to  indicate  that  it  is  artificial ;  while  its  magnitude,  so  far  be- 
yond any  imaginable  utility,  would  lead  to  the  belief  that  it  must 
be  natural.  The  probability  is  that  a  projecting  point  was  left 
by  a  loop  in  the  stream  which  once  flowed  under  this  bank ;  and 
that  the  Mound  Builders  seeing  in  this  feature  something  which 
they  could  turn  to  advantage,  modified  its  form  in  some  measure 
by  their  own  labor.  What  purpose  or  object  they  may  have  had  in 
so  doing  is  a  matter  of  conjecture.  The  question  of  its  origin 
can  be  settled  only  by  a  careful  examination  of  trenches  cut  across 
it,  to  ascertain  whether  the  interior  shows  any  evidence  of  surface 
material  at  a  level  below  that  reached  by  the  plow. 

AT   CINCINNATI. 

Dr.  Drake  thus  enumerates  the  ancient  works  in  the  vicinity 
of  Cincinnati.  He  falls  into  the  same  error  as  Harrison,  in  con- 
sidering the  various  ''  inequalities  of  surface  "  artificial  when  they 
are  plainly  natural. 

"  The  remains  on  the  site  of  Cincinnati,  are  an  ellipse  800  by  600  feet, 
the  bank  not  over  three  feet  high ;  what  seems  to  be  the  segment  of  a  very 
large  circle,  though  it  can  be  traced  only  three  blocks ;  a  circle  sixty  feet 
in  diameter ;  two  low  parallels  connected  at  the  ends ;  an  excavation  12 
feet  deep  and  fifty  feet  across ;  two  other  shapeless  and  insulated  eleva- 
tions, more  than  six  feet  in  height,  which,  it  seems  probable  are  artificial ; 
and  four  mounds,  the  largest  about  35  feet  high  before  being  disturbed. 
In  addition,  the  site  of  our  town  exhibits  many  other  inequalities  of  sur- 
face, which  are  no  doubt  artificial ;  but  they  are  too  much  reduced,  and 
their  configuration  is  too  obscure,  to  admit  of  their  being  described.  The 
plains  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  have  not  a  single  vestige  of  this 
kind.  The  mound  at  Third  and  Main  Streets  was  about  eight  feet  high, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  long,  and  sixty  broad.  In  it  were  found  plummets 
of  jasper,  rock  crystal,  granite  and  other  stones;  pulley-like  objects  of 
cannel  coal  and  argillaceous  earth ;  incised  bones ;  mica ;  galena ;  copper 
plates ;  large  marine  shells  cut  in  such  manner  as  to  serve  for  domestic 
utensils;  spool-shaped  copper  objects;  and  the  remains  of  not  more  than 
20  or  30  skeletons."  —  Dr.  Drake,  199,  condensed. 

OTHER  WORKS  IN   THE   MIAMI  VALLEYS. 

The  complicated  structure  shown  in  figure  43  (S.  &  D.,  94 
plate  XXXIV,  No.  i),  is  one  mile  east  of  Milford,  in  Clermont 
county;  that  in  figure  44  (same.  No.  2B),  is  about  twenty  miles 
farther  east. —  S.  &  D.,  94. 


Miami  Valley  Enclosures, 


213 


V'.. 


\ 


ANCIENT  WORK 
C ferment  Cooofy,  Oh/o. 


/COO  ^£'£T 


Figure  43. 


Figure  44. 
The  "Gridiron,"  Clermont  County,   Ohio. 


214 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


The  diverging  lines  of  the  first,  on  the  hill,  and  the  "  grid- 
iron "  interior  arrangement  of  the  other,  induce  some  skepticism 
as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  drawings.  Thomas  makes  the  following 
comment  on  them: — 

"  Some  of  the  singular  works  described  and  figured  in  Ancient 
Monuments  and  elsewhere  are  to  a  large  extent  imaginary.  Of  these 
we  may  name  Nos.  1  and  2,  PI.  XXXIV  of  that  work.  The  wing  to  No. 
1  is  not  only  imaginary,  but,  according  to  the  Bureau  agent  who  visited 
the  locality,  was  made  impossible  by  the  topography."  —  B.  E.  12,  566. 

On  a  level  terrace  five  miles  north  of  Hamilton  a  double  wall  encloses 
with  the  terrace  bank,   an  irregular  space  of  about  "25  acres.     The  inner 


ANCIENT  \AJORK 
Bvfler  Co.  Ohio  I 


Figure    45, 

wall  is  about  three  feet  high,  the  outer  four.  They  are  parallel  and  only 
a  few  feet  apart.  An  exterior  ditch  from  five  to  six  feet  and  35  feet  wide, 
probably  furnished   earth   for   both   embankments. —  S.   &   D.,    29. 

The  work  shown  in  figure  45  (S.  &  D.,  35,  plate  XIII,  No.  2), 

"is  situated  near  the  village  of  Coleraine,  Hamilton  County,  Ohio, 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Great  Miami  river,  and  encloses  an  area  of 
ninety-five  acres.  The  walls  have  an  average  height  of  nine  feet,  and 
have  an  exterior  ditch  of  proportionate  dimensions.  *  *  *  The  up- 
heaved gravel  upon  the  exterior  side  of  the  wall,  wherever  it  is  under 
cultivation,  supports  dwarfed  and  sickly  maize;  while  on  the  inner  side: 
the  grain  is  luxuriant."  —  S.  &  D. ,  35. 

The  explanation  given  in  regard  to  the  great  thickness  of 
gravel  on  the  outer  side  of  the  wall  also  accounts  for  the  ''clay 
embankments"  sometimes  found.     Where  there  is  a  substratum  of 


Square  and  Circles  near  Dayton.  215 

clay,  into  which  the  ditch  reaches,  that  material  will  form  the  top 
of  the  wall ;  and  when  the  ditch  becomes  partially  filled,  so  that  the 
clay  in  it  is  no  longer  visible,  there  is  straightway  an  argument 
that  "  these  walls  are  composed  of  earth  which  must  have  been 
carried  a  long  distance,  as  there  is  none  like  it  to  be  seen  in  the 
vicinity."  (Compare  the  concluding  sentence  of  the  next  para- 
graph.) 

Six  miles  below  Dayton,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Miami,  were 
a  square  and  two  circles,  differing  in  plan  from  those  of  the  Scioto 
valley  in  being  placed  at  several  hundred  feet  from  each  other.  Not 
one  of  them  was  ever  carried  to  completion,  one  side  of  the  square 
being  only  half-finished,  while  a  large  arc  was  lacking  in  each  circle. 
According  to  the  surveyor's  figures,  the  square  would  have  enclosed 
thirty-one  acres;  the  smaller  circle  had  a  diameter  of  875  feet,  the 
larger  of  1950  feet.  "The  embankments  are  now  between  five  and 
six  feet  high,  and  have  a  base  fifty  feet  wide.  They  are  composed 
of  tough  yellow  clay,  which  is  found  to  be  superimposed  on  the  loam, 
of  the  original  level.  It  must  have  been  brought  from  a  distance,  as 
there  are  no  excavations  perceptible  in  the  vicinity.  —  S.  &  D.,  82. 

This  work  is  shown  in  figure  46  (S.  &  D.,  82,  plate  XXIX). 
It  is  evident  from  the  plan  that,  with  the  river  where  it  now  is, 
the  larger  figure  could  never  have  been  made  a  ''perfect  circle." 
If  the  uncompleted  portion  had  been  carried  on  with  the  same 
curvature,  it  would  have  reached  the  river  some  distance  below 
the  point  of  beginning;  in  which  case  it  would  no  doubt  have 
been  adduced  as  another  example  of  a  work  "partially  destroyed 
by  the  encroachment  of  a  stream,  which  fact  is  a  proof  of  its 
extreme  antiquity."  The  ''encroachment"  could  readily  enough 
occur;  but  on  the  outside  of  a  curve  it  may  go  on  rapidly  and 
be  a  matter  of  a  quite  recent  period. 

With  a  single  exception  no  recent  surveys  have  been  made 
which  can  serve  as  a  check  to  the  areas  of  works  along  the  Great 
Miami,  as  given  in  "Ancient  Monuments."  The  exception,  how- 
ever, proves  that  the  evil  fate  which  led  to  such  egregious  mis- 
takes in  the  Scioto  valley  pursued  the  early  surveyors  farther 
west.  In  the  first  volume  issued  by  the  present  Ohio  Archaeo- 
logical and  Historical  Society,  on  page  266,  Professor  McFarland 
presents 

"a  correct  plan  of  the  earthwork  described  by  McBride  in  Squier 
and  Davis,  Plate  XI,  No.  2,  and  by  McLean  in  his  'Mound 
Builders.'  "  McBride's  plat  "  gives  the  area  as  '  25  acres ' ;  the  text 
says  '  20  acres.'     A  careful  survey  made  under  my  personal  supervision. 


216 


Archaeoloi^ical  History  of  Ohio. 


ANC/ENT  WORK$ 
Mont<^on;cry  County  Oh/o. 


^CALe 


/ooo  /^scr 


Figure   46. 


Work  near  Oxford.  217 

■gives  eight  acres.  *  *  *  Only  the  wildest  kind  of  guess  work  could 
have  produced  a  plat  so  far  out  of  the  way  in  respect  to  size,  shape  and 
position."  *  *  *  Even  so  late  as  1840,  the  stream  flowed  in  that  part 
marked  '  old  channel.'  *  *  *  The  terrace  mentioned  by  Mr.  McBride 
is  nothing  but  landslides."  —  McFarland,  265-7. 

The  same  investigation  that  corrected  the  mistake  as  to  area 
of  this  enclosure,  revealed  the  purpose  of  its  creation.  This  one, 
at  least,  was  a  stockaded  village. 

"  A  plowman  said  that  when  the  field  is  fresh  plowed  the  eye  can 
easily  trace  out  the  center  of  the  wall  by  a  streak  of  dark  earth.  Acting 
on  this  hint  we  caused  six  or  eight  trenches  to  be  cut  directly  across  the 
wall,  down  to  the  general  level  of  the  earth.  Looking  into  these  cross- 
sections  the  most  careless  eye  could  not  fail  to  detect  immediately  the 
position  of  the  dark  band.  This  was  about  one  foot  wide  and  was  filled 
with  earth  of  a  darker  hue.  The  spade  cut  through  small  pebbles  of 
limestone  which  had  been  changed  to  lime,  and  thus  the  part  of  the 
cross-section  occupied  by  the  band  was  speckled  with  white  spots.  We 
also  found  pieces  of  charcoal  too  deep  down  to  have  been  put  there  by 
accident." 

"  It  is  evident  that  a  row  of  pickets,  or  palisade,  had  been  destroyed 
by  fire,  as  there  is  no  other  way  to  account  for  the  burned  pebbles, 
charcoal,  and  tolerably  uniform  width  of  the  black  streak  wherever  a 
cross-cut  was  made.  The  narrow  trench  or  cavity  left  by  such  burning, 
being  hardened  on  the  exposed  faces  by  the  heat,  would  remain  open 
till  a  considerable  amount  of  leaves  or  trash  would  accumulate  in  it, 
before  caving  in  from  the  top.  Fresh  earth,  thus  covering  the  marks  of 
fire  and  decay,  would  protect  such  traces  from  alteration  until  it  was 
removed  by  cultivation  or  denudation ;  so  that  if  similar  evidence  is 
sought  in  other  embankments,  we  must  look  for  it  at  or  near  the  natural 
surface  of  the  ground."  —  McFarland,  268,  condensed. 

If  such  use  of  palisades  was  customary  among  the  Mound 
Builders,  it  is  probable  that  many  works  which  seem  incomplete, 
as  along  steep  banks  or  the  edges  of  streams,  had  the  missing 
parts  thus  supplied. 

*  *  j!j 

A  square  enclosure  in  Franklin  county,  located  near  Worth- 
ington,  is  presented  in  figure  47  (S.  &  D.,  PI.  XXIX).  The  cut 
suflficiently  explains  its  position  relative  to  the  streams  and  the 
general  topography. 

The  circle  next  represented,  figure  48  (S.  &  D.,  85,  plate 
XXX  No.  3,)  is  a  mile  east  of  Bourneville,  on  a  high  terrace. 
The  authors  say  of  it :  — 


218 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


ANCIENT  WORK 
^  f^ranA/in  County,  Ohio. 


^^S('l!?i5!ii".%i)f^ 


Figure    47  —  Square    near    Worthington. 


Figure    48  —  Ellipse    near    Bourneville. 


Position  of  Enclosures,  Etc.  219 

"The  small  work  here  figured,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  the 
State  of  Ohio.  *  *  *  it  consists  of  a  wall  of  earth,  eight  or  ten  feet 
in  height,  with  a  broad  and  shallow  exterior  ditch.  In  figure  it  is  ellip- 
tical, with  a  transverse  diameter  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty,  and  a 
conjugate  diameter  of  six  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet.  It  has  a  gateway 
one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  wide,  leading  into  it  from  the  southwest. 
It  opens  upon  a  small  spur  of  the  terrace,  which  has  been  artificially 
rounded  and  graded,  so  as  to  make  a  regular  and  easy  descent  to  the 
lower  level.  *  *  *  The  proprietor  esteems  the  soil  much  richer  within 
the  enclosure  than  upon  the  adjacent  plain.  We  are  unprepared  to  ascribe 
any  other  than  a  religious  origin  to  this  structure."  —  S.  &  D.,  85. 

The  "regular  and  easy  descent"  is  entirely  natural,  due 
partly  to  the  manner  in  which  the  material  (glacial  drift)  was 
deposited,  and  partly  to  subsequent  erosion.  There  is  a  bold 
spring  midway  of  the  slope  on  this  descent.  As  in  so  many 
other  cases  where  these  works  are  concerned,  the  favorable  con- 
tours determined  the  location  of  the  village ;  the  Mound  Builders 
would  not  choose  a  place  difficult  of  access  and  then  waste  a 
vast  amount  of  labor  in  altering  the  topography  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, when  there  were  scores  of  places  that  offered  every  induce- 
ment for  settlement  without  demanding  any  such  exertion. 


CHAPTER  VI 


SMAIvIvBR  ENCLOSURES  AND  WORKS  OF  IRREGULAR 
CONSTRUCTION. 

Minor  Geometrical  Enclosures.  Confined  Mainly  to  Southern  Half  of 
the  State.  Probably  Walls  of  Villages.  The  Smallest,  Possibly 
Foundations  for  Houses.  Irregular  Works,  Mostly  in  Northern 
Part  of  the  State  and  in  Miami  Valleys.  Evidently  for  Defensive 
Purposes.    Similar  Works  Common  in  Other  States. 

BESIDES  the  larger  geometrical  works  above  described, 
there  may  be  found  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  southern  half 
of  the  State  small,  tolerably  regular,  circular,  square,  or 
elliptical  enclosures.  They  occur  associated  with  all  the  great 
low  land  eal-thworks ;  in  connection  with  groups  of  mounds ; 
or  standing  singly,  miles  from  any  other  aboriginal  structure, 
sometimes  on  the  highest  summits.  The  interior  usually  mea- 
sures from  150  to  250  feet  across;  the  walls  in  some  cases 
are  scarcely  traceable,  in  others  from  five  to  six  feet  high 
with  a  base  of  ten  times  the  height.  There  is  but  one  entrance 
way ;  on  the  east  side  in  most,  sometimes  on  the  north  or 
south,  very  seldom  on  the  west.  Only  the  heavier  embank- 
ments are  accompanied  by  ditches ;  and  while  in  the  larger  enclo- 
sures "ditches,  when  they  exist,  are  nearly  always  interior  to  cir- 
cles or  exterior  to  squares,"  (S.  &  D.,  8),  in  the  case  of  these  the 
ditch,  when  there  is  one,  is  inside  the  wall,  regardless  of  the  out- 
line. Occasionally  a  mound  stands  on  the  space  enclosed,  some- 
times quite  small,  again  taking  up  nearly  the  whole  area  within  the 
ditch.  A  few  of  these  mounds  have  been  excavated,  and  skele- 
tons found  in  them.  Rarely,  a  circular  bank  surrounds  a  square 
interior,  the  ditch  varying  in  width  to  accomodate  itself  to  both, 
as  at  the  large  group  in  Pike  county,  shown  in  figures  21  and  22. 
It  is  possible  that  some  of  them,  as  suggested  by  Morgan  for 
the  larger  squares,  served  as  the  foundation  for  houses  whose 
openings  faced  the  inner  court.  If  such  was  their  purpose,  the 
.utility  of  the  ditch  is  not  apparent.     The  central  mound  would 

(220) 


Minor  Enclosures.  221 

certainly  exclude  a  number  from  this  category,  unless  it  was 
erected  after  the  building  was  intentionally  abandoned  or  de- 
stroyed. 

"  Lest  these  comparatively  little  works  [referring  to  those  which 
are  from  150  to  250  feet  in  diameter]  should  appear  insignificant,  from 
the  small  scale  on  which  they  are  presented,  it  may  be  well  enough  ta 
remark,  that  the  circle  formed  by  the  stones  composing  the  great  temple 
of  Stonehenge  is  but  little  more  than  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  and 
that  most  of  the  circular  earth  and  stone  structures  of  tne  British  islands 
are  considerably  less  in  size  than  those  here  presented."  —  S.  &  D.,  93. 

;is  5is  *  5ti  t- 

In  figure  49  (B.  E.  12,  450,  figure  309),  is  represented  a 
fair  example  of  the  smaller  enclosures  of  the  State.  This  group 
is  situated  near  Dublin  in  Franklin  county.  Each  consists  of  a 
ditch  within  an  embankment.  The  passage  ways  are  at  the  nat- 
ural level,  both  wall  and  fosse  coming  to  an  end  at  their  margin. 
Measuring  on  the  middle  line  of  the  embankment  in  each  case, 
the  diameter  of  number  i  is  120  feet ;  of  number  3,  162  feet.  The 
sides  of  number  2,  to  the  points  where  they  would  intersect  if 
produced,  are  287,  212,  262  and  220  feet.  The  wall  of  number  i 
is  about  ten  feet  broad  and  two  feet  high,  the  ditch  fifteen  feet 
wide  and  two  feet  deep.  In  number  2,  the  wall  is  from  25  to  35 
,  feet  wide  and  quite  uniformly  about  three  feet  high ;  the  ditch  is 
20  feet  in  width,  except  on  the  west  side,  where  it  is  ten  feet  wider ; 
its  depth  varies  from  two  to  four  feet.  The  embankment  of 
number  3  is  18  feet  across  and  two  feet  high;  the  ditch  22  feet 
wide  and  three  feet  deep.  All  measures  begin  at  the  level  of  the 
natural  surface.  Besides  the  two  mounds  in  number  2,  there  are 
many  flat  stones  which  are  said  to  have  formed  graves  containing 
very  large  skeletons. 

The  group  in  figure  50  (S.  &  D.,  63,  plate  XXIII,  No.  2) 
is  four  miles  north  of  Athens,  on  a  plain  of  about  1,000  acres,, 
elevated  sixty  to  seventy  feet  above  the  Hocking  River,  which 
flows  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  east  of  the  works.  The  largest 
circle,  A,  encloses  a  level  space  130  feet  in  diameter;  the  wall  is 
seven  feet  high  and  the  ditch  six  feet  deep.  Of  course  the 
authors  ascribe  a  "religious  origin"  to  the  group.  —  S.  &  D.,  63. 

In  figure  51  (Sm.  Rep.,  1884,  p.  37),  from  a  map  prepared 
by  C.  T.  Wiltheiss,  the  remains  of  Miami  County  are  shown. 

Major  Long  gives  an  extended  description  of  the  earth- 
works and  other  remains  about  Piqua. 


<^-7-7 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


"  We  observed  one  elliptic  and  five  circular  works,  two  of  which 
are  on  the  east  bank  of  the  river,  the  others  on  the  west.  The  ground 
appears  in  all  cases  to  have  been  taken  from  the  inside,  which  forms  a 


Figure  49  —  Group  of  Enclosures  near  Dublin 


ditch  in  the  interior."  All  these  were  small,  the  largest  measuring  83 
by  295  feet  in  its  two  diameters.  "The  elevation  of  [the  different  para- 
pets] varies  at  present  from  three  to  five  or  six  feet."  He  describes  also 
the  wall  of  stones  north  of  the  town,  and  while  offering  no  definite 
suggestion  as  to  its  purpose  unless  "it  must  have  been  a  religious  monu- 
ment," gives  various  objections  to  "  the  possibility  of  its  being  intended  as 
a  work  of  defense." 


Group  of  Small  Enclosures  Near  Athens. 


223 


ANCIENT  WORK 
Athene  Co.  Oh/'o 


aOOO   PSET 


Figure  50. 


224 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


\ 


Figure  51  —  Archaeological  Map  of  Miami  County. 


Various  Works,  Domiciliary  or  Defensive.  225 

"  About  half  a  mile  to  the  south  of  the  town  at  Piqua,  there  is 
an  old  Indian  cemetery;  upon  [the  exposed  strata  of  limestone]  rocks  it 
appears  that  the  corpses  were  placed  and  that  they  were  covered  with 
slabs  of  stone."  Even  at  that  early  day,  "most  of  these  mounds  had 
been  broken  open."  —  Long,  St.  Peters,  50,  et  seq. 

Circular  embankments  of  still  smaller  size  are  numerous  and 
wide-spread.     For  example,  at  the  High  Banks  works, 

"  A  number  of  small  circles  occur  about  a  hundred  rods  distant 
from  the  octagon,  in  the  forest  land  to  the  southeast.  They  measure 
nearly  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  walls  are  about  two  feet  in  height. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  they  are  the  remains  of  structures  of  some 
kind,  and  also  that  they  were  the  bases  of  unfinished  mounds.  There  are 
no  indications  of  entrances  or  passageways,  a  circumstance  which  favors 
the  latter  hypothesis.  Similar  small  circles  occur  within  or  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  several  other  large  works."  —  S.  &  D.,  50. 

It  is  probable,  as  pointed  out  by  Morgan,  that  walls  of  this 
character  mark  the  sites  of  council  houses  or  communal  dwell- 
ings. In  periods  of  wet  weather  some  measures  must  be 
adopted  to  prevent  the  surface  water  from  finding  its  way  to 
the  interior;  and  in  winter  the  base  of  the  building  would  need 
additional  protection  against  the  ingress  of  cold  air.  Both  these 
requirements  could  be  met  either  by  making  a  ridge  of  earth 
along  the  line  of  posts  forming  the  frame  of  a  wooden  structure^ 
and  extending  downward  over  it  the  bark  or  other  material 
with  which  the  walls  were  covered;  or  by  piling  earth  against 
the  base  on  the  outside  as  is  now  done  by  many  inhabitants  of 
cold  countries. 

Such  embankments  as  these  would  also  result  from  the  decay 
of  walls  plastered  with  mud. 

WORKS  OF  IRREGULAR  CONSTRUCTION. 

The  more  elaborate  earth-works,  having  been  so  often 
described  and  figured,  are  somewhat  familiar  to  the  public; 
equally  deserving  of  study,  though  not  so  impressive,  are  others 
to  which  less  attention  has  been  paid. 

These  vary  in  design  from  a  straight  wall  to  a  combination 
of  rudely  elliptical  or  nearly  circular  enclosures,  with  accompa- 
nying wing  walls  or  supplementary  structures  covering  many 
acres.  Apparently  their  general  purpose  was  for  protection  to 
settlements  around  them  or  to  villages  within  them.  In  some 
15 


226  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

cases,  the  point  of  a  high  hill  with  precipitous  sides,  or  a  penin- 
sula in  a  level  bottom,  is  cut  off  from  the  adjacent  country  by 
an  earthen  or  stone  wall,  straight,  curved,  or  broken,  as  may 
be  most  suitable;  again,  as  large  a  level  area  as  may  be  desired 
is  enclosed  by  a  crooked  embankment,  whose  ends  abut  upon  a 
cliff  or  stream ;  or  where  these  plans  are  not  feasible,  the  entire 
space  required  is  often  artificially  enclosed.  All  these  methods 
may  be  combined  in  one  series.  Generally,  but  not  always,  a 
deep  ditch  accompanies  the  wall;  it  may  be  on  either  the  inner 
or  the  outer  side.  It  is  probable  that  the  earth  in  a  majority  of 
these  structures  supported  palisades. 

In  Ohio,  remains  of  this  sort  are  most  numerous  in  the 
valleys  of  the  two  Miamis  and  in  two  or  three  tiers  of  counties 
south  of  Lake  Erie,  though  they  are  not  uncommon  in  other  parts 
•of  the  State.  Many  of  them  closely  resemble  enclosures  and 
defensive  works  in  other  states,  known  to  have  been  built  or 
occupied  in  the  historic  period.  In  a  few,  transverse  cuttings 
have  shown  marks  along  the  center  line  due,  beyond  question, 
to  the  decay  or  burning  of  posts  that  stood  in  them. 

An  excellent  example  of  the  form  under  consideration  is 
situated  in  Greene  county,  a  few  miles  from  Xenia.  At  some 
former  time  Massie's  creek,  after  eroding  a  deep,  sinuous  channel, 
abandoned  its  course  and  formed  a  cut-off.  On  the  detached 
area  thus  .separated  from  the  level  land  the  aborigines  con- 
structed the  work  shown  in  figure  52  (S.  &  D.,  plate  XII,  No.  3). 
The  north,  east,  and  south  sides  of  the  island,  if  it  may  be  so 
called,  terminate  in  abrupt  cliffs  which  needed  no  protection. 
The  sloping  surface  toward  the  west  was  guarded  by  a  double 
line  of  ditch  and  embankment,  carried  entirely  across,  but 
interrupted  by  several  gateways. 

Typical  of  this  class,  also,  are  the  works  at  Norwalk,  pre- 
sented in  figure  53  (S.  &  D.,  plate  XV,  No.  i).  The  method 
of  closing  the  entrance  in  the  ellipse,  the  manner  in  which  the 
end  of  the  hill  is  guarded  against  forays,  the  dependence  upon 
the  stream  and  its  banks  for  security  in  other  directions,  and  the 
partially  excavated  ditch  within  the  ellipse,  show  the  principal 
features  in  all  groups  of  this  character.  All  the  lines  of  embank- 
ment were  low,  none  more  than  three  feet  high  before  being 
.cleared. 


Irregular  Works  in  Northern  Ohio. 


227 


/^\v///'ifp¥r^vv/rr\'^''^^^ 


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ANCIENT  WO^K 

Cteene^  Coonfy,  O/i/'o. 

SCACS 

^3o  ^ser 


Figure    52. 

Other  enclosures  of  this  class  are  given  in  figure  54  (same, 
Nos.  2  and  3),  the  first  near  Conneaut  and  the  second  three 
miles  southeast  of  Cleveland;  figure  55  (S.  &  D.,  40,  figs. 
6  and  7),  on  the  Cuyahoga  River,  respectively  six  and  eight 
miles  above  Cleveland;  and  figure  56  (same,  fig.  8),  an  appar- 
ently unfinished  work,  near  Toledo.  Two  in  Lorain  county  are 
illustrated  in  figures  57  and  58  (S.  &  D.,  39,  figs.  4  and  5). 

The  first  consists  of  "double  embankments,  with  an  intermediate 
ditch.  The  embankments  are  very  slight,  not  much  exceeding  a  foot  in 
height."  In  the  second,  which  is  near  the  first,  there  are  two  embank- 
ments, each  with  an  outer  ditch,  but  there  is  no  gateway  to  the  inner 
line..— S.  &  D.,  39. 


228 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Iniii# 


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m^'^Hi!^^ 


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^ 


^. 


Figure  53  —  Works  at   Norwalk,    Huron   County. 


Irregidar  Works  in  Northern  Ohio. 


229 


Figure    54. 


230 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


.^^*V 


\A/0/^/<S    NEAf^   CLevaUANO.   Q 


^ 


h^ 


Figure  55.— Works  near  Cleveland,  Ohio. 


Irregular  Works  in  Northern  Ohio, 


231 


1 

c. 

fmy^ 

f- 

A 

JUL 

W/  wish 

/fl^e^3Mres^\ 

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S 

WORKS 

NEfKR 

TOLEDO, 

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LV/PAIN  CC,  0, 


Figure  66. 


Figure  67. 


i^oRHS  in 
LORAIN   CO..  O. 


Figure  58, 

A  very  common  form  is  thus  described  by  Schoolcraft : — 

"  There  are  two  enclosures  on  the  south  shore  of  Cunningham's  [now 
known  as  Kelly's]  Island,  in  Lake  Erie.  One  is  a  crescent-shaped  and 
irregular  earih-work,  which  has  the  general  appearance  of  an  embank- 
ment, or  circumvallation  intended  to  enclose  and  defend  a  village.  The 
gateways  occupy  the  east  side  and  the  northwestern  angle.  The  em- 
bankment is  twelve  hundred  and  forty-six  feet  around  the  crescent- 
shaped  part,  and  about  four  hundred  feet  on  the  rock-brink  of  the 
island.  A  second  enclosure,  marked  by  circumvallation,  also  fronts  on 
the   rocky   and  precipitous   margin   of   the   lake.     This   front   line   is   614 


232  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

feet.  The  embankment,  which  is  wholly  without  gate  or  sally-port,  is 
1243  feet  around.  Near  by  is  a  rock  one  face  of  which,  measuring 
32  by  21  feet,  is  nearly  covered  by  incised  figures  and  characters.  Another 
inscribed  rock,  much  smaller,  is  on  the  north  side  of  the  island.  Several 
small  mounds  or  burial  heaps  are  on  the  western  and  southern  parts  of  the 
island."  —  Schoolcraft,   History,   II,  86  et  seq.    condensed. 

"Within  the  old  fort  described  [above]  large  numbers  of  human 
bones  are  turned  up  by  the  plow.  Under  the  Indian  occupancy  this  island 
must  have  been  populous,  for  there  are  in  many  places  partially  obliterated 
works  of  prehistoric  date.  The  islands  and  the  shores  of  the  west  end 
of  Lake  Erie  are  the  best  of  fishing  grounds  where  both  savage  and 
civilized  man  can  procure  an  excellent  living  with  little  labor."  —  Whit- 
tlesey, Kelly's,  36. 

i!j  *  *  >ij  ^ 

There  has  been  much  difference  of  opinion  concerning  the 
relation  between  these  works  and  the  larger  enclosures.  But 
there  has  been  no  discussion  as  to  their  purpose;  it  is  agreed  by 
all  that  they  are  defensive  in  their  nature.  At  first  Squier  and 
Davis  were  inclined  to  attribute  the  two  classes  of  work  to  the 
same  people. 

"  The  traces  of  ancient  fortifications  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  upon  the  head  waters  of  the  Susquehanna  in 
Pennsylvania,  may,  it  is  believed,  be  referred  with  entire  safety  to  the 
same  hands  with  those  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  It  will  be  seen  that  they 
have  a  close  resemblance  to  those  of  northern  Ohio,  both  in  position  and 
structure."  —  S.  &  D.,  44. 

Short  adopted  this  view  and  attempted  to  explain  the  causes 
leading  to  so  great  a  change  in  conformation. 

"  The  Indian  has  no  more  knowledge  of  who  constructed  the  fort- 
like enclosures  of  Western  New  York,  and  common  upon  the  rivers  dis- 
charging themselves  in  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario  from  the  South,  than  of 
the  builders  of  the  mounds  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi.  *  *  *  It  is 
probable  that  these  defences  belong  to  the  last  period  of  the  Mound- 
builders'  residence  on  the  lakes,  and  were  erected  when  the  more  war- 
like peoples  of  the  North  who  drove  them  from  their  cities  first  made 
their  appearance."  —  Short,  28. 

Foster  unconsciously  came  near  arriving  at  the  probable 
truth  of  the  matter  while  trying  to  prove  something  else. 

"  The  Mound-builders,  if  their  enemy  were  like  the  modern  Indians, 
had  only  to  guard  against  sudden  attacks,  and  a  row  of  pickets,  without 
reference  to  whether  the  trench  were  inside  or  outside,  would  be  effectual. 
*  *  *  These  [small]  enclosures  are  the  most  conspicuous  along  what 
may  be  called  the  frontier  of  the  Alleghenies,  and  disappear  altogether 
as    we    enter    the    immediate    valley    of    the    Mississippi.     *     *     *     This 


Methods  of  Defense  Among  Barbarians.  233 

-would  seem  to  imply  that  there  was  another  race,  occupying  the  moun- 
tain region  to  the  east,  *  *  *  —a  race  of  Highlanders,  essentially 
different  in  habits—  *  *  *  who  from  time  to  time,  made  predatory 
excursions  into  the  Mound-builders'  country,  and  succeeded  at  last  in 
extirpating  the  inhabitants.  On  the  west,  it  may  be  inferred,  the  country 
was  secure  against  such  irruptions."  —  Foster,  175. 

In  "  Ancient  Monuments  "  are  figured  many  works  in  South 
Carolina,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  New  York,  which  have  a  decided  resemblance  to  the 
more  irregular  enclosures  of  Ohio.  This  fact,  however,  can 
have  no  other  significance  than  that  their  builders  working  under 
analogous  conditions  and  circumstances,  with  the  same  kind  of 
material,  constructed  works  essentially  similar  in  character.  It 
cannot  be  made  to  mean  anything  more  than  that  they  were  the 
same  kind  of  people — not  that  they  were  the  same  tribes,  or 
even  allied  to  one  another. 

"  All  primitive  defences,  being  designed  to  resist  common  modes  of 
attack,  are  essentially  the  same  in  their  principles,  and  seldom  differ  much 
in  their  details."  —  Squier,  N.  Y.,  84. 

"  In  all  the  works  of  the  northern  part  of  the   state  described  by 
Colonel   Whittlesey,   the   walls   are   low   and   the   ditches    shallow;     none 
of  them  having  a  total  slope  from  embankment  top  to  bottom  of  ditch 
of  more  than  eight  feet  at  any  point,  and  most  of  them  having  a  measure 
considerably  less  than  this.     In  most  of  them  the   soil  on  the  enclosed 
area  is  noticeably  more  fertile  than  that  in  the  vicinity  outside;    indicat- 
ing a  village-site,  probably  in  not  very  remote  times.     '  Nothing  can  be 
.  more  plain,  than  that  most  of  the  remains  in  northern  Ohio,  particularly 
those   on   the    Cuyahoga   river,    are   military   works.     It   is    very    safe  ^  to 
presume  that  palisades  were  planted  on  them.     Of  the  works  bordering 
on  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  through  the  State  of  Ohio,   there  are  none 
but  may  have  been  intended  for  defense;    although  in  some  of  them  the 
design   is   not  perfectly  manifest.     They   form   a   line   from   Conneaut  to 
Toledo,  at  a  distance  of  from  three  to  five  miles  from  the  lake;    and  all 
stand   upon    or   near   the   principal    rivers.     They   are    so    different    from 
the  large  enclosures  in  the  interior  of  the  State  that  I  am  disposed  to 
regard  them,  not  only  as  designed  for  other  purposes,  but  as  the  work 
of  another  and  probably  later  people.     By  whatever  people  these  works 
were  built,  they  were  much  engaged  in  offensive  or  defensive  wars.     At 
the    south,    on   the   other    hand,    agriculture    and    religion    seem    to    have 
chiefly  occupied  the  attention  of  the  ancient  people.     Upon  the  assump- 
tion that  two  distinct  nations  occupied  the  State,—  that  the  northern  were 
warlike,    and   the    southern   agricuhural    and   peaceful    in    their   habits,— 
may   we   not   suppose   that   the   latter   were   overcome   by   their   northern 
neighbors,  who  built  the  military  works  to  be  observed  upon  the  Ohio 


234  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  its  tributaries,  while  the  more  regular  structures  are  the  remains  of 
the  conquered  people?'"  —  S.  &  D.,  41,  condensed. 

The  authors,  unwilling  to  relinquish  their  prejudice  in  favor 
of  a  single  race,  make  this  comment  upon  Whittlesey's  contri- 
bution : — 

"  The  differences  between  the  northern  and  southern  earthworks,, 
pointed  out  by  Mr.  Whittlesey,  are  not  greater  than  would  naturally  be 
exhibited  between  the  structures  of  a  sparse  frontier  population,  and 
those  erected  by  more  central  and  dense  communities.  *  *  *  'pj-jg  j-g^^g^ 
by  whom  these  works  were  erected,  possessed  [a]  knowledge  of  the 
science  of  defense  *  *  *  much  superior  to  that  known  to  have  been 
possessed  by  the  hunter  tribes  of  North  America  previous  to  the  dis- 
covery by  Columbus,  or  indeed  subsequent  to  that  event."  —  S.  &  D.,  42, 

The  best  general  description  of  remains  of  this  character  is 
furnished  by  Read: 

"  The  most  of  these  works  are  confined  to  the  valleys  of  the  streams 
where  there  is  land  specially  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  maize.  *  *  * 
They  are  much  more  abundant  in  the  northern  and  southern  than  in  the 
central  parts  of  the  State,  a  fact  which  might  be  easily  explained  from 
the  small  extent  of  the  alluvial  valley  on  the  table  land.  Sti'll  there  is 
a  marked  difference  in  the  character  of  those  in  the  northern  and  southern 
regions.  The  former  have  more  the  appearance  of  defence  works,  both 
in  their  location  and  mode  of  construction.  They  ordinarily  occupy 
elevated  spurs,  projecting  from  the  table  land  into  the  valleys,  over- 
looking extensive  alluvial  plains  —  often  where  erosion  has  left  these 
spurs  with  a  narrow  connection  with  the  table  land,  and  a  wider  expanse 
of  surface  on  the  part  projecting  into  the  valley.  In  such  cases  the 
works  consist  of  one,  two,  or  three  ditches  and  embankments  across  the 
neck,  plainly  intended  to  protect  the  spur  against  aggression  from  the 
table  land.  The  enclosed  surface  often  shows  evidence  of  having  been 
leveled  off,  the  material  removed  so  deposited  as  to  increase  the  angle 
of  the  slope  rising  from  the  valley;  and  in  some  cases  the  location  of  an 
old  footpath  leading  from  the  summit  into  the  valley  can  be  clearly 
traced.  The  enclosed  surface  is  generally  filled  with  pit-holes  and  shows 
evidence  of  long  occupancy.  *  *  *  These  protecting  walls  and  ditches 
take  different  shapes,  determined  by  the  form  of  the  surface  to  be  pro- 
tected. *  *  *  The  size  of  these  enclosures  seems  to  be  related  to  the 
size  of  the  arable  land  in  the  adjacent  valley,  and  hence  to  the  size 
of  the  village  communities  that  could  be  supported  by  them.  It  seems 
a  reasonable  inference  that  these  enclosures  were  strongholds,  for  pro- 
tection and  observation,  and  designed  to  meet  the  normal  wants  of 
small  communities  of  agriculturalists,  and  that  they  were  not  erected 
to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a  campaign.  The  great  number  of  them,  and 
the  small  size  of  each,  scattered  along  the  bluffs  of  a  single  stream, 
like  the  Cuyahoga,  would  tend  to  confirm  this  conclusion.  *  *  *  im 
the  valley,  and  at  a  distance  from  these  protected  enclosures,  are  some- 


Modern  Iroquois  Embankments,  Similar  to  Those  in  Ohio.   235 

times  single  mounds,  which  seem  not  to  have  been  burial  mounds, 
raised  to  such  an  elevation  merely  as  would  give  an  extended  view  above 
the  top  of  the  growing  corn.  *  *  *  In  this  whole  northern  region 
true  burial  mounds  are  rare,  and  those  that  have  been  observed  are  of 
small  size."  —  Read,  Arch.,  80. 

Near  the  north  line  of  Pickaway  county  two  parallel  streams  enter 
the  Scioto  some  300  feet  apart.  Across  the  peninsula  thus  formed  extend 
three  parallel  lines  of  embankment,  separated  only  by  narrow  ditches  in- 
terior to  each.  —  S.  &  D.,  36. 

This  is  the  most  southern  point  in  central  Ohio  where  a 
work  of  this  particular  kind  has  been  recorded.  It  signifies  that 
a  party  from  the  Lake  district  established  themselves  here  for  a 
time ;  though  it  may  have  been  only  a  temporary  village-site  or 
a  summer's  camping-place. 

After  Squier  had  concluded  his  archaeological  work  in  south- 
ern Ohio,  he  extended  his  labors  to  western  New  York  and 
the  southern  border  of  Lake  Erie.  He  comes  to  the  following 
conclusions : — 

"  It  has  long  been  known  that  many  evidences  of  ancient  labor  and 
skill  are  to  be  found  in  the  western  parts  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
upon  the  upper  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  and  along  the  shores  of  Lake 
Erie  and  Ontario.  Here  we  find  a  series  of  ancient  earth-works,  en- 
trenched hills,  and  occasional  mounds  or  tumuli.  It  has  all  along  been 
represented  [by  various  authors  whom  he  names]  that  some  of  the  en- 
closures were  of  regular  outlines,  true  circles  and  ellipses  and  accurate 
squares  —  features  which  would  imply  a  common  origin  with  the  vast 
system  of  ancient  earth-works  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Submitted  to  the 
test  of  actual  survey,  I  have  found  that  the  works  which  were  esteemed 
entirely  regular  were  the  very  reverse,  and  that  the  builders,  instead 
of  constructing  them  upon  geometrical  principles,  regulated  their  form 
entirely  by  the  nature  of  the  ground  upon  which  they  were  built.  And 
I  may  here  mention,  that  none  of  the  ancient  works  of  this  State,  of 
which  traces  remain  displaying  any  considerable  degree  of  regularity, 
can  lay  claim  to  high  antiquity.  All  of  them  may  be  referred,  with 
certainty,  to  the  period  succeeding  the  commencement  of  European  inter- 
course." 

"  Were  these  works  of  the  general  large  dimensions  of  those  of 
the  Western  States,  their  numbers  would  be  a  just  ground  of  astonishment. 
They  are,  however,  for  the  most  part,  comparatively  small,  varying 
from  one  to  four  acres  —  the  largest  not  exceeding  sixteen  acres  in 
area.  The  embankments,  too,  are  slight,  and  the  ditches  shallow;  the 
former  seldom  more  than  four  feet  in  height,  and  the  latter  of  correspond- 
ing proportions.  *  *  *  Most  occupy  high  and  commanding  sites  near 
the  bluff  edges  of  the  broad  terraces  by  which  the  country  rises  from 
the  level  of  the  lakes.     *     *     *     When  found  upon  lower  grounds,  it  is. 


'236  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

usually  upon  some  dry  knoll  or  little  hill,  or  where  banks  of  streams 
serve  to  lend  security  to  the  position.  A  few  have  been  found  upon 
sJight  elevations  in  the  midst  of  swamps,  where  dense  forests  and  almost 
impassable  marshes  protected  from  discovery  and  attack.  In  nearly  all 
cases  they  are  placed  in  close  proximity  to  some  unfailing  supply  of 
water,  near  copious  springs  or  running  streams.  *  *  *  These  circum- 
stances, in  connection  with  others  not  less  unequivocal,  indicate,  with 
great  precision,  the  purpose  for  which  these  structures  were  created. 
*  *  *  Few  positions  susceptible  of  defence,  under  the  systems  practiced 
by  all  rude  people,  are  to  be  found  upon  [the  first  and  second]  terraces; 
the  builders,  consequently,  availed  themselves  of  the  numerous  headlands 
and  other  defensible  positions  which  border  the  supposed  ancient  shores 
of  the  lake,  simply  because  they  afforded  the  most  effectual  protection 
with  the  least  expenditure  of  labor." 

"  Misled  by  statements  which  no  opportunity  was  afforded  of  verify- 
ing, I  have  elsewhere,  though  in  a  guarded  manner,  ventured  the  opinion 
that  the  ancient  remains  of  western  New  York  belonged  to  the  same 
system  with  those  of  Ohio  and  the  West  generally." 

"  In  full  view  of  the  facts  before  presented,  I  am  driven  to  a  con- 
clusion little  anticipated  when  I  started  on  my  trip  of  exploration,  that 
the  earth-works  of  Western  New  York  were  erected  by  the  Iroquois 
or  their  western  neighbors,  and  do  not  possess  an  antiquity  going  very 
far  back  of  the  discovery.  Their  general  occurrence  upon  a  line  parallel 
to  -and  not  far  distant  from  the  lakes,  favors  the  hypothesis  that  they 
were  built  by  frontier  tribes  —  a  hypothesis  entirely  conformable  to 
aboriginal  traditions.  Here,  according  to  these  traditions,  every  foot  of 
ground  was  contested  between  the  Iroquois  and  the  Gah-kwas  and  other 
western  tribes;  and  here,  as  a  consequence,  where  most  exposed  to 
attack,  were  permanent  defences  most  necessary."  —  Squier,  N.  Y.,  2, 
12,  11,  and  83. 

The  contrary  opinion  to  that  expressed  by  Squier,  would 
not  have  become  so  firmly  fixed,  perhaps,  but  for  Gallatin.  His 
standing  as  a  student  of  Indian  languages  gave  to  his  words 
undue  influence  in  aboriginal  affairs  generally.  Consequently, 
when  he  ridiculed  the  idea  that  earthen  walls  were  made  by 
Indians,  few  were  inclined  to  doubt  his  correctness.  Either 
through  a  lack  of  acquaintance  with  early  records,  or  a  lapse 
of  memory  in  regard  to  their  contents,  he  wrote, 

"  If  considered  only  as  fortifications,  ramparts  of  earth  in  a  forest 
'Country  strike  us  as  a  singular  mode  of  defense  against  savage  enemies 
and  Indian  weapons.  All  of  the  defensive  works,  without  exception,  that 
were  used  by  the  Indians  east  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  time  they 
were  first  known  to  us,  were  of  a  uniform  character.  They  all  consisted 
of  wooden  palisades  strongly  secured,  [were]  of  a  moderate  size,  and  such 


Fortified  Tozvns  of  the  Hurons  and  Iroquois.  237 

as   could   be   defended   by   the   population   of   an   Indian  village."  —  Gal- 
latin, 148. 

But  Gallatin  overlooked  the  fact  that  palisades  cannot  stand 
without  support;  and  this  support  usually  takes  the  form  of  a 
bank  of  earth  heaped  against  the  foot.  Frequently,  too,  a  ditch 
was  dug  alongside  as  an  additional  defense. 

From  Canada  and  New  England  to  the  Gulf  and  the  upper  Missouri, 
fortification  by  means  of  ditch,  embankment  and  palisade,  was  com- 
mon; and  this  was  continued  until  within  the  present  century,  or  until 
the  final  expulsion  of  the  Indians,  in  war  among  themselves  as  well  as 
with  the  whites.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  many  of  the 
large  earth-works  in  the  Southern  States  are  the  sites  of  villages  or 
towns  occupied  in  De  Soto's  time. —  Carr,   Mounds,  593,  et  seq. 

"  The  fortified  towns  of  the  Hurons  were  all  on  the  side  exposed  to 
Iroquois  incursions.  The  fortifications  of  all  this  family  of  tribes  were, 
like  their  dwellings,  in  essential  points  alike.  A  situation  was  chosen 
favorable  to  defence, —  the  bank  of  a  lake,  the  crown  of  a  difficult  hill, 
or  a  high  point  of  land  in  the  fork  of  confluent  rivers.  A  ditch,  several 
feet  deep,  was  dug  around  the  village  and  ihe  earth  thrown  up  on  the 
inside.  [Palisades]  were  planted  on  the  embankment,  in  one,  two,  three, 
or  four  concentric  rows, —  those  of  each  row  inclining  towards  those  of 
the  other  rows  until  they  intersected." — Jesuits,   xxviii. 

"  The  Iroquois  resided  in  permanent  villages.  *  *  *  Having  run 
a  trench  several  feet  deep  around  five  or  ten  acres  of  land  and  thrown 
up  the  ground  on  the  inside,  they  set  a  continuous  row  of  stakes  or 
palisades  in  this  bank  of  earth,  fixing  them  at  such  an  angle  that  they 
inclined  over  the  trench.  Sometimes  a  village  was  surrounded  by  a 
double  or  even  a  triple  row  of  palisades.  *  *  *  Around  it  was  the 
village  field,  consisting,  oftentimes,  of  several  hundred  acres  of  cultivated 
land.  *  *  *  But  *  *  *  when  their  power  had  become  consoli- 
dated and  most  of  the  adjacent  nations  had  been  brought  under  subjection, 
the  necessity  of  stockading  their  villages  ceased,  and  with  it  the  practice." 
—  Iroquois,  312. 

"  Indeed,  now  that  the  palisades  that  once  enclosed  the  villages 
known  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  Iroquois  have  rotted  away,  there  is 
no  structural  difference  to  be  seen  between  them  and  any  of  the  earth- 
works of  Western  New  York;  and  as  these,  in  their  turn,  are  identical 
in  this  respect  with  the  hill-forts  of  the  Ohio  valley,  it  must  follow,  if 
the  Iroquois  or  their  western  neighbors  erected  the  New  York  series  of 
these  works,  that  there  is  no  reason  why  these  same  western  neighbors, 
or  a  people  in  the  same  stage  of  civilization,  could  not  have  built  those 
in  Ohio  and  still  further  to  the  west,  due  regard  being  had  to  their  popu- 
lation and  to  the  necessity  for  such  defenses."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  592. 


CHAPTER  VII 


HILL-TOP    ENCLOSURES. 

Effective  Defenses.  Deficient  Water  Supply.  Large  Areas  Included} 
Amount  of  Labor  Involved  in  Construction.  Possibly  Not  Work  of 
the  Mound  Builders. 

THE  difficulties  of  accounting  for  large  symmetrical  em- 
bankments in  bottom  lands,  do  not  exist  in  the  case  of  walls 
of  similar  proportions  upon,  or  around,  the  summits  of 
hills  To  all  who  carefully  examine  their  location  it  is  evident  they 
were  made  for  defensive  structures.  Whether  composed  entirely 
of  stone,  or  of  earth,  or  of  both  combined ;  whether  confined  to 
a  plateau  or  extending  down  a  hillside;  whether  having  a  ditch 
either  interior  or  exterior,  or  rising  directly  from  a  level  surface ; 
— in  all,  the  method  of  construction  and  their  position  relative  to 
the  surrounding  country,  make  it  obvious  they  were  intended 
as  a  place  of  refuge  in  time  of  danger  from  foes.  So  long  as 
the  defenders  could  muster  in  sufficient  numbers  to  man  the 
walls  and  had  an  ample  store  of  provisions  and  munitions  of 
war,  these  places  would  be  impregnable  except  against  overwhelm- 
ing odds. 

But  provisions  means  also  water;  and  the  most  perplexing 
question  in  the  study  of  all  these  forts,  one  that  has  never  been 
solved  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  is  that  of  water  supply.  No 
springs  exist  within  them,  as  they  are  above  drainage;  shallow 
depressions  in  some  have  been  called  reservoirs,  but  these  would 
be  very  precarious  as  they  depend  entirely  upon  rainfall  and 
are  dry  much  of  the  summer  and  autumn ;  it  would  be  a  tedious 
and  arduous  undertaking  to  carry  an  adequate  supply  up  these 
long  steep  hills  at  any  time,  and  with  an  active,  alert  enemy  at 
hand  would  be  impossible  of  performance.  Even  should  the  few 
ponds  be  cleared  out  to  a  depth  that  would  ensure  plenty  of 
water  the  year  round,  the  difficulty  still  presents  itself  that  most 
of  these  enclosures  have  no  depression  within  them  where  water 
would  stand  for  a  day. 

(238) 


The  Principal  Hill-Top  Enclosure  of  Ohio.  239 

FORT  ANCIENT. 

Easily  first  among  prehistoric  fortifications,  is  Fort  Ancient 
in  Warren  county.  The  Little  Miami  at  this  point  makes  a  sharp 
bend  from  south  to  east.  Two  ravines  head  near  each  other  on 
the  table  land  to  the  left  of  the  stream ;  one  of  these  trends  west, 
the  other  south,  into  the  river.  The  promontory  thus  formed  has 
an  elevation  of  about  270  feet.  Around  the  tortuous  margin  of  its 
summit  a  ditch  has  been  excavated  and  the  earth  piled  on  the 
outer  side  in  a  wall  which  varies  from  three  to  twelve  feet  in 
height,  above  the  natural  surface.  Across  the  narrow  level  neck 
between  the  two  ravines  the  ditch  is  outside  the  wall,  and  the  lat- 
ter rises  to  an  altitude  of  nineteen  feet.  East  of  the  fort,  a 
few  rods  from  the  walls,  are  two  mounds,  about  ten  feet  high 
before  being  disturbed ;  an  artificial  ditch  reached  from  each  of 
these  to  the  ravine  bounding  the  fort  on  the  corresponding  side. 
Beginning  at  these  mounds  a  double  line  of  embankment  extends 
eastward,  curving  around  a  small  mound  and  coming  together  at 
a  distance  of  2760  feet  from  the  starting-point. 

At  every  opening  where  the  wall  is  worn  away,  stone  may 
be  seen  cropping  out  at  the  base ;  whether  they  underlie  the  entire 
embankment,  or  whether  they  are  only  placed  at  the  depres- 
sions to  prevent  surface  water  from  washing  out  the  earth  is  as 
yet  unknown.  To  the  left  of  the  pike,  above  the  railway  station, 
may  be  seen  a  few  stones  piled  in  the  form  of  a  leaning  wall, 
near  the  outside  margin  of  the  embankment.  They  are  now 
covered  with  earth,  settled  down  over  them  from  the  wall. 

The  total  length  of  the  walls  of  the  fort,  not  including  any 
detached  works,  is  187 12  feet;  the  longest  straight  line  that  can 
be  drawn  within  them  is  a  little  less  than  5000  feet. 

Many  thousands  of  "  Indian  relics  "  have  been  gathered  up 
within  a  radius  of  two  miles  about  the  fort.  They  include  every 
variety  of  form  and  material  that  can  withstand  exposure  to  air 
and  moisture.  At  several  places  within  the  fort  walls  and  in 
the  immediate  vicinity,  flint  implements  were  made  in  great  quan- 
tities. 

A  feature  of  much  interest  in  connection  with  Fort  Ancient, 
is  the  stone  pavement  about  two  hundred  yards  outside  of  the 
eastern  wall. 


240  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  An  excavation  four  feet  in  width  and  ten  feet  long  was  made,, 
and  one  portion  of  the  pavement  was  actually  laid  bare.  We  found  at 
a  depth  of  twelve  inches  a  considerable  quantity  of  fine  gravel,  which  had 
been  filled  in  between  the  stones,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  intended 
to  secure  evenness  of  surface.  The  pavement  is  laid  with  limestones,  which 
were  probably  brought  from  the  ravines  and  creek-beds  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. Some  of  them  are  two  to  two  and  a  half  inches  in  thickness, 
others  not  more  than  an  inch  and  a  half.  The  pavement  rests  on  the 
original  surface,  the  clay  being  fourteen  to  fifteen  inches  below  it.  It  is 
supposed  to  have  been  on  the  surface,  of  course,  and  the  earth  above  is. 
due  to  vegetable  decay  and  the  accumulation  of  debris.  Some  of  the 
stones  give  evidence  of  having  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire,  but 
most  of  them  show  no  trace  of  heat.  The  use  of  this  pavement  is  wholly 
conjectural.  *  *  *  Its  area,  approximately,  is  130  by  500  feet.  *  *  * 
The  plow  has  greatly  disturbed  in  a  number  of  places  a  few  of  these 
stones,  but  most  of  them  are  as  they  were  placed  at  first.  They  seem 
to  have  been  slightly  worn  on  the  upper  side,  as  if  they  had  been  used 
for  many  years  as  an  assembly-ground."  —  Ft.  A.,  54. 

For  additional  information  concerning  this  remarkable  pro- 
duct of  prehistoric  skill  and  industry  the  reader  is  referred  to  a 
volume  entitled  "  Fort  Ancient,"  by  W.  K.  Moorehead.  It  em- 
bodies the  results  of  months  of  labor  spent  in  making  surveys  and 
excavations. 

The  land  upon  which  the  fort  is  located,  with  the  exception 
of  a  small  portion  at  the  northern  end,  is  now  the  property  of  the 
State,  and  in  charge  of  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical 
Society ;  so  its  preservation  is  ensured  for  centuries  to  come. 

A  correct  plan  of  the  enclosure  and  surrounding  area  is 
shown  in  Figure  59,  reduced  and  slightly  altered  from  Moore- 
head's  map. 

The  plan  by  Squier  and  Davis,  which  has  been  extensively 
copied,  conveys  an  incorrect  idea  of  the  course  of  the  walls. 
Many  of  the  sections  represented  as  regular  curves  or  tolerably 
straight  lines  have  numerous  sharp  bends  and  angles.  The  lines 
of  contour  and  the  course  of  ravines  are  quite  misleading,  as 
they  give  a  very  erroneous  impression  of  the  height  and  steep- 
ness of  the  hill-sides.  None  of  the  streams  are  shown  in  their 
proper  places,  especially  that  which  is  represented  as  flowing 
westward  along  the  southern  side,  apparently  about  half  way  up 
the  hill ;  in  reality  this  flows  directly  south  across  a  narrow  strip 
of  bottom  land  into  the  river.  The  "  mounds  "  marked  on  the 
line  of  enclosure  are  only  heavier  sections  of  embankment. 


The  Largest  Hill-top  Enclosure  in  Ohio, 


241 


16 


Figure    59  —  Fort    Ancient,    Warren    County. 


242  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

These  authors  also  state  that  the  parallel  walls  "  continue  for 
about  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty  feet;"  which  is  less  than  half 
their  real  length. 

In  order  that  he  may  find  an  excuse  for  ascribing  a  "  reli- 
gious significance  "  to  the  work,  Peet  congratulates  himself  upon 
his  good  fortune 

"*  in  apprehending  the  significance  of  these  walls  and  mounds  of  the 
lower  enclosure"  at  Fort  Ancient.  "  They  bear  a  resemblance  to  the 
form  of  two  massive  serpents,  which  are  apparently  contending  with 
one  another."  —  Peet,  I,  1. 

There  is  more  to  the  same  effect. 

SPRUCE    HILL. 

Figure  60  (S.  &  D.,  11,  Plate  IV),  is  a  copy  of  the  Squier 
and  Davis  survey  of  the  fort  at  Spruce  Hill,  opposite  Bourne- 
ville  in  Ross  county. 

This  work  overlooks  the  entire  region  from  the  hills  east 
of  the  Scioto  to  the  high  land  about  Hillsboro,  as  well  as  the 
country  for  many  miles  north  and  south.  The  hill  on  which  it 
stands  is  a  long,  narrow  spur  projecting  from  the  table  land 
toward  the  south,  with  steep,  in  some  cases  almost  precipitous, 
sides.  The  wall,  composed  entirely  of  bowlders  and  cobble-stones 
resulting  from  the  disintegration  of  the  sandstone  strata  at  and 
near  the  surface,  closely  follows  the  margin  of  the  level  summit, 
a  little  below  the  top  of  the  slope  at  every  point  except  where 
the  lines  connecting  the  ends  are  carried  across.  It  was  only 
from  this  direction  that  danger  need  be  apprehended  by  the 
inmates,  as  no  other  portion  of  the  enclosure  could  be  reached 
save  by  a  tedious  ascent  of  the  steep  hill,  over  loose  rocks  in  many 
places,  and  constantly  exposed  to  missiles  of  the  besieged. 
Although  nowhere  more  than  two  feet  in  height  now,  the  amount 
of  material  scattered  along  the  line  where  it  has  stood  is  abundant 
for  the  construction  of  a  barrier  sufficient  to  check  the  advance  of 
an  unorganized  or  undisciplined  foe.  The  few  breaks  or  openings 
easily  accessible  are  all  in  the  part  crossing  the  neck  of  the  spur, 
and  are  quite  narrow,  with  the  wall  curving  inward  at  each. 
Thus,  every  entrance  could  be  speedily  closed  to  form  a  cul-de-sac 
where  an  enemy,  when  he  once  got  in,  would  find  himself  exposed 
to  attack  on  three  sides. 

At  the  time  of  the  original  survev, 


spruce  Hill  Fort, 


243 


Figure  60  —  Spruce  Hill  Fort,  near  Bourneville. 

"'  where  the  wall  is  best  preserved,  there  is  little  evidence  that  the  stones 
were  laid  one  upon  the  other  so  as  to  present  vertical  faces,  much  less 
that  they  were  cemented  in  place."  —  S.  &  D.    11. 


244  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

Since  that  date  the  owner  of  the  land,  m  building  a  fence, 
carried  it  for  a  few  rods  along  the  old  line.  In  order  to  save 
rails,  he  gathered  up  all  the  loose  stones  and  built  them  into  a 
wall.  This  was  told  to  me  by  the  man  who  built  the  fence. 
This  short  stretch  of  modern  stone  wall  has  several  times  been 
cited  as  proof  that  the  Mound  Builders  could  erect  a  stone  wall 
that  would  remain  upright  for  an  indefinite  time.  It  has  now 
fallen. 

The  interior  of  the  fort  has  been  long  in  cultivation ;  but  the 
clearing,  except  in  a  few  spots,  reaches  only  to  the  top  of  the 
slope,  so  that  the  wall  is  still  mostly  in  the  original  forest.  It  is. 
evident  that  Squier  and  Davis  followed  the  margin  of  the  cleared 
land  in  making  their  survey,  at  least  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
way,  and  made  the  course  of  the  wall  correspond.  Many  curves 
and  angles  which  exist  in  the  structure  do  not  appear  in  the 
drawing. 

"  On  the  inside  of  the  wall,  at  line  D,  there  appears  to  have  been  a 
row  of  furnaces  or  smith's  shops,  where  the  cinders  now  lie  many  feet  in 
depth."  —  Atwater,  149. 

These  masses  of  burned  earth  and  stone  also  occur  at  some 
other  points,  notably  on  the  western  side.  No  examination  has 
ever  been  made  of  them,  so  no  explanation  can  be  offered. 

There  is  a  large  depression  within  the  fort  which  is  generally 
supposed  to  be  artificial,  intended  to  form  a  reservoir  or  perma- 
nent lake.  Its  shape  and  situation  are  such  that  it  must  be  due 
to  natural  causes.     It  is  now  nearly  filled  up. 

In  the  shale  forming  the  bed  of  Paint  creek,  at  the  foot  of 
Spruce  Hill,  are  many  concretions,  some  of  them  two  or  three 
feet  in  diameter.  Floods  and  freezing  split  and  break  these  in 
various  shapes,  thereby  giving  rise  to  stories  of  "  wells,"  "  fish 
traps,"  "  hiding  places  for  treasure,"  etc.  Such  concretions  are 
common  in  many  places,  and  the  diverse  forms  they  assume, 
though  often  peculiar,  are  altogether  natural. 

This  fort  is  probably  the  largest  area  in  the  world  surrounded 
by  an  artificial  wall  made  entirely  of  stone. 

FORT    HILL. 

Fort  Hill,  three  miles  north  of  Sinking  Springs  in  Highland 
county,  is  located  on  one  of  the  western  peaks  of  the  Sunfish 
Hills,  entirely  detached  by  Brush  creek  and  deep  ravines  from 


Fort  Hill  245 

any  other  elevated  area.  The  hill-sides  present  a  succession  of 
minor  cliffs,  shale  banks,  washouts,  and  loose  broken  rock;  in 
■only  two  or  three  places  can  a  continuous  grade  be  found  to  the 
summit.  At  the  top,  a  sandstone  ledge  crops  out,  and  the  weath- 
ered fragments  of  this  are  piled  up  into  a  rude  wall  around  the 
hill,  conforming  in  some  measure  to  its  irregular  outline.  The 
height  of  the  wall  was  increased  by  throwing  on  it  a  large  quan- 
tity of  earth,  excavated  along  its  inner  side,  leaving  a  considerable 
ditch. 

"  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  work  is  in  a  broken  country,  with 
no  other  remains,  except  perhaps  a  few  small,  scattered  mounds,  in  its 
vicinity.  The  nearest  monuments  of  magnitude  are  in  the  Paint  Creek 
valley,  sixteen  miles  distant,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  elevated 
ridges.  Lower  down,  on  Brush  Creek,  towards  its  junction  with  the 
Ohio,  are  some  works;  but  none  of  importance  occur  within  twelve 
miles  in  that  direction."  "  In  1845,  a  standing  chestnut  was  21  feet  in 
•circumference,  and  a  fallen  oak  23  feet.  The  length  of  the  wall  is 
8,224  feet;  its  height  usually  from  6  to  10,  though  in  some  places,  15 
feet ;  the  base  is  35  to  40  feet."  "  The  ditch  has  an  average  width  of 
not  far  from  fifty  feet;  and  in  many  places  is  dug  through  the  sandstone 
layer  upon  which  the  soil  of  the  terrace  rests.  At  the  point  A  the  rock 
is  quarried  out,  leaving  a  mural  front  twenty  feet  high."  —  S.  &  D.,  14 
•and  16. 

The  use  of  the  term  ''  quarried  "  by  the  authors  has  led  to 
a  belief  that  work  was  carried  on  here  similar  to  that  employed 
in  getting  out  large  blocks  for  building.  Such  was  not  the  case. 
The  rock  at  this  point  is  not  in  heavy  layers  but  in  angular,  flat- 
tened slabs,  thinning  out  to  an  edge  on  every  side,  and  most  of 
them  small  enough  to  be  handled  by  one  man.  It  is  but  little 
more  difficult  to  take  them  from  a  bluff,  at  least  to  as  great  a 
depth  as  roots  and  frost  penetrate,  than  it  is  to  pick  them  up  in 
the  bed  of  a  creek.  No  other  tools  than  handspikes  would  be 
needed. 

The  accompanying  map,  figure  6i,  is  reconstructed  from  those 
of  Squier  and  Davis,  and  H.  W.  Overman  of  Waverly.  Over- 
man's map  of  the  immediate  vicinity  is  also  given  in  Figure  62 
(O.  A.  H.,  I,  262).    An  abstract  of  his  report  is  appended. 

"  Fort  Hill  is  three  miles  north  of  Sinking  Springs,  in  Highland 
county,  Ohio.  Its  elevation  is  about  five  hundred  feet  above  the  bed 
of  Brush  Creek.  It  was  constructed  by  an  excavation  of  earth  and 
stone  around  the  brink  of  the  hill,  thus  raising  a  wall,  which,  at  the 
present  time,  has  a  base  averaging  twenty-five  feet  and  a  height  aver- 
aging from  six  to  ten  feet.       Its  entire  length  is  8,582  feet.       It  contains 


246 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


Figure  61. 


Fort  Hill 


247 


50,856  cubic  yards  of  material.  The  area  enclosed  is  thirty-five  acres. 
The  gateways  or  entrances  are  thirty-three  in  number  and  are  spaces 
from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  in  width,  arranged  without  apparent  order  or 
regularity  except  that  an  average  number  is  found  on  either  side,— 
the    eastern    half    containing    the    same    number    as    the    western.        The 


HIGHLAA^D    COTJNTY,    OHIO. 
By  H.  w.  Overman, 


J-lgure  62  —  Map  of  the   V'icinity  of   Fort   Hill. 

same  may  be  said  as  to  the  northern  and  ■  southern  divisions.  The 
space  enclosed  is  level.  There  are  two  small  ponds,  one  located  near 
the  northern  extremity,  the  other  in  the  north-central  part  of  the  Fort. 
In  winter  and  during  rainy  weather  these  ponds  contain  water  and  could 
be  made  to  hold  and  retain  almost  any  desired  quantity.  The  entire 
circumference  of  the  wall  for  at  least  one  hundred  feet  from  the  summit 
is  very  steep  and  precipitous,  so  that  the  inmates  would  certainly  be 
able  to  repel  a  much  superior  force  from  the  outside. 


248 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


"  There  are  evidences  of  the  former  existence  of  a  considerable  vil- 
lage or  settlement  about  one  mile  south  of  the  summit  of  the  hill.     Three 


>^S^#tS^i^£iii^ 


Figure  63  —  The'  Stone  Fort  at  Glenford,  Perry  County. 


circular    enclosures    and    other   artificial    structures    are    visible." 
man,  260-1. 

GLENFORD    FORT. 


Over- 


One  of  the  most  interesting  works  in  the  State  is  the  large 
stone  fort  in  Perry  county,  near  Glenford.     A  sketch  is  given  in 


The  Glenford  Fort.  249 

Pig.  63  (E.  E.  12,  No.  470,  Fig.  319).  It  stands  upon  a  hill  which 
is  entirely  isolated  from  the  surrounding  high  land  except  for  a 
very  narrow  ridge  wdiich  gently  declines  for  some  distance 
toward  the  southeast,  and  then  rises  to  the  general  level.  The 
spur  thus  cut  off  is  elevated  about  300  feet  above  the  creek  at  the 
foot  of  the  western  slope;  its  practically  level  summit  is  termi- 
nated in  nearly  every  direction  by  a  vertical  ledge  of  sandstone 
from  six  to  ten  feet  in  height,  the  outcrop  of  the  cap-rock.  On 
the  eastern  side  -this  bluff  is  absent  for  a  few  hundred  feet  and 
the  slope  is  tolerably  uniform  from  the  top  half  way  to  the  bottom. 
The  wall  of  the  fort  follows  closely  around  the  margin,  except  at 
the  line  c — d  where,  for  some  unexplainable  reason,  it  is  carried 
along  the  steep  hillside  below.  It  varies  from  six  feet  high  at 
the  southeast  and  northwest  sides,  to  a  foot  or  even  less  along 
the  gentle  eastern  slope  where  one  would  naturally  suppose  it 
would  be  heaviest,  as  no  other  part  is  so  easily  approached. 

It  may  be,  however,  that  for  this  reason  palisades  were  erected, 
and  only  a  retaining  wall  of  stones  made.  Several  small  breaks 
•eroded  in  the  solid  rock  foundation  intercept  the  course  of  the 
line.  It  is  carried  across  some,  around  others,  and  terminates 
at  each  side  of  the  deepest ;  the  sides  being  vertical,  no  protection 
was  needed  in  the  last,  as  it  would  be  easy  to  drop  a  boulder  on 
the  head  of  an  intruder.  At  the  southeast  corner  is  a  natural 
passage-way,  formed  by  a  long  crevice  opening  out  directly  on 
the  isthmus.  The  wall  is  re-entrant  along  both  sides  of  this  and 
much  strengthened  at  its  outlet.  There  is  a  confused  heap  of 
stones  on  each  side  here,  which  may  have  forrried  a  sort  of  bas- 
tion, breastwork,  or  other  defensive  structure.  The  entire  length 
of  the  wall,  which  is  much  more  tortuous  than  can  be  shown  on 
the  small  scale  of  the  accompanying  map,  is  6,610  feet,  and  the 
enclosed  area  about  26  acres.  Very  few  stones  are  to  be  seen  on 
the  surface  within  the  enclosure ;  all  which  were  accessible  at  the 
time  seem  to  have  been  gathered  up  to  form  the  walls,  and  the 
mound  shown  in  the  cut.  The  latter  is  now  about  12  feet  high 
and  100  feet  in  diameter;  but  a  great  amount  of  stone  has  been 
hauled  away  from  it. 

At  several  points  are  minor  openings,  most  of  them  conveni- 
ent to  good  springs  at  the  foot  of  the  hill. 

Views  of  this  structure  are  shown  in  figures  64,  65,  66  and  6y. 


250 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


Figure  64  — Looking  north  along  the  east  side    of  Glenford  Fort. 


The  Fort  at  Glenford. 


251 


Figure  65  —  View  on  the  east  wall  of  Glenford  Fort. 


252  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  C6  —  Present  appearance  of  the  east  wall  of  Glenford  Fort. 


The  Fort  at  Glenford. 


253 


Figure  67  —  View  from  the  interior  of  Glenford  Fort,   near  the  stone  mound. 


254  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

FORT    MIAMI. 

The  defensive  earthwork  in  the  extreme  southwest  angle  of 
the  State  is  commonly  known  as  Fort  Hill ;  but  as  that  title  is  due 
by  pre-emption 'to  the  work  in  Highland  county,  this  should  be 
called  Fort  Miami  from  its  location  on  a  high  hill  overlooking 
all  the  territory  about  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami  river. 

There  is  very  little  stone  in  the  wall,  it  being  composed  al- 
most entirely  of  earth  obtained  from  a  ditch  along  the  bottom, 
on  the  inner  side.  The  gateways  are  comparatively  narrow  and 
few  in  number ;  from  the  situation  of  some  of  them  it  would  seem 
they  were  but  little  used ;  others  are  toward  the  easiest  approaches. 
The  average  cross-section  of  the  wall  is  considerably  in  excess  of 
that  of  any  other  enclosure  in  the  State,  similarly  situated,  but  the 
area  enclosed  is  only  a  few  acres,  holding  no  comparison  in  this 
respect  with  several  other  structures  whose  walls  are  much  lighter. 

The  gullies  draining  the  interior  through  the  walls  are  but 
little  worn  down ;  the  deepest  is  not  more  than  three  feet  below  the 
base  of  the  wall  on  either  side  although  it  drains  an  acre  or  more. 
No  estimate  of  time  can  be  made  from  such  measurement,  because 
the  wall  itself  may  have  been  cut  off  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  the  same  water  that  lowered  the  bottom  of  the  ravine ;  and  the 
erosion  of  the  former  may  have  been  greater  than  that  of  the 
latter. 

At  one  place  in  the  north  wall,  at  the  largest  ravine,,  there  are 
some  stones  which  seem  to  have  been  piled  on  one  another  into  a 
rough  wall,  as  a  revetment.  The  ends  of  the  wall  at  this  break 
show  marks  of  burning,  but  this  may  be  due  to  brush  fires  in  clear- 
ing the  land. 

The  structure  is  excellently  adapted  to  defensive  purposes, 
but  there  must  have  been,  particularly  on  the  north  side,  some  ad- 
ditional protective  work,  as  the  wall  there  though  very  steep  on 
the  outer  side,  has  its  top  almost  on  a  level  with  the  interior  sur- 
face, exposing  its  inmates  to  easy  assault  by  any  one  who  could 
reach  the  summit. 

Two  mounds  on  a  ridge  a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  eastward 
of  the  fortification  are  about  eight  and  eleven  feet  high. 

An  approximately  correct  sketch  is  given  in  figure  68  (S.  & 
D.,  plate  IX,  No.  2)  ;  the  annual  report  of  the  Indiana  Geological 
Survey  for  1878  gives  a  niap  of  the  region  about  the  mouth  of  the 
Great  Miami,  showing  the  ^onncr  course  of  the  river.  Fort  Miami, 


Fort  Miami,  near  North  Bend. 


255 


and  works  on  the  hills  north  of  Lawrencehitrg.     The  river  has 


made  extensive  changes  of  channel. 


In  the  early  settlement  of  this  region, 

"A  large  space  of  the  lower  ground  was  enclosed  by  walls,  uniting 
it  with  the  Ohio.  The  foundation  of  that,  (being  of  stone  as  well  as 
those  of  the  citadel),  that  forms  the  western  defence,  is  still  very  visible 
where  it  crosses  the  Miami,  which,  at  the  period  of  its  erection,  must 
have  discharged  itself  into  the  Ohio  much  lower  down  than  it  does  now. 
I  have  never  been  able  to  discern  the  eastern  wall  of  this  enclosure,  but 
if  its  direction  from  the  citadel  to  the  Ohio,  was  such  as  it  should  have 
been,  to  embrace  the  largest  space,  with  the  least  labor,  there  could  not 
have  been  less  than  three  hundred  acres  enclosed."  —  Harrison,  263. 


256  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  engineers  who  directed  the  execution  of  the  Miami  works, 
appear  to  have  known  the  importance  of  flank  defenses.  And  if  their 
bastions  are  not  as  perfect,  as  to  form,  as  those  which  are  in  use  in 
modern  engineering,  their  position  as  well  as  that  of  the  long  lines  of 
curtains,  are  precisely  as  they  should  be.  I  have  another  conjecture 
as  to  this  Miami  fortress.  If  the  Mound  Builders  were  really  the 
Astecks,  the  direct  course  of  their  journey  to  Mexico,  and  the  facilities 
which  that  mode  of  retreat  would  afford,  seems  to  point  out  the  descent 
of  the  Ohio,  as  the  line  of  that  retreat.  It  was  here  that  a  feeble 
band  was  collected  to  make  a  last  effort  for  the  country  of  their  birth, 
the  ashes  of  their  ancestors,  and  the  altars  of  their  gods  "  —  Harrison,  225, 
condensed. 

FORT  AT  Foster's  crossing. 

"A  singular  structure,  locally  known  as  the  The  Fort,'  is  on  the 
hill  top  opposite  the  station  of  Foster's,  in  Warren  county.  It  is  a 
circumvallation  over  half  a  mile  in  extent,  made  up  of  a  carefully  laid 
wall  of  flat  stones  along  the  outer  side  several  feet  in  height ;  behind 
these  are  loose  stones,  both  large  and  small,  making  nearly  half  the 
structure ;  and  behind  and  over  these  stones  a  mass  of  clay  burnt  to  all 
degrees  of  hardness,  in  places  forming  a  vitreous  surface  over  the  slag,, 
which  resembles  that  from  a  blast  furnace.  At  every  part  of  the  work 
through  which  a  trench  was  dug  the  same  story  was  told,  —  burnt  stones 
and  clay,  ashes  and  charcoal,  and  the  mass  of  stones,  faced  on  the  outer 
side  by  a  good  stone  wall."  —  Putnam,  Foster's,  126,  condensed. 

This  is  an  tmcompleted  defensive  work.  Only  a  portion  of 
the  wall  was  ever  built.  From  a  corner  at  the  top  of  the  hill 
nearest  the  river,  a  short  line  bears  eastward,  running  somewhat 
below  the  brow  of  the  declivity ;  another,  much  heavier,  line  fol- 
lows the  brink  of  a  ravine  which  leads  in  a  southerly  course  di- 
rectly away  from  the  river  and  into  a  small  creek.  Both  these 
walls  terminate  abruptly  at  points  where  there  is  no  reason  ap- 
parent why  they  should  not  continue.  Except  for  a  narrow 
isthmus  at  the  corner  mentioned,  the  hill  is  entirely  isolated  by 
steep  slopes  of  deep  ravines ;  and  except  for  a  few  hundred  feet 
at  the  southeast,  there  may  be  traced  an  unbroken  artificial  ter- 
race around  the  margin,  in  a  position  corresponding  to  such  por- 
tion of  the  wall  as  exists.  This  tends  to  prove  that  the  ground 
was  leveled  to  afford  a  base  upon  which  to  begin  structures  of 
this  character.  On  the  side  next  the  river,  beyond  the  point 
where  the  embankment  ceases,  there  are  a  few  places  where  burned 
earth,  similar  to  that  in  the  walls,  may  be  found.  The  embank- 
ment is  nowhere  more  than  four  or  five  feet  high  on  the  inside ; 
on  the  outer  side,  owing  to  the  necessity  for  a  steeper  slope  than 


Fort  in  Warren  County.    Fortified  Hill  in  Butler  County.  257 

is  afforded  by  the  natural  surface,  it  measures  in  some  places  fully 
thirty  feet  vertically  from  bottom  to  top — not  that  the  wall  was 
made  so  high,  but  its  base  overlaps  the  hill-slope  to  that  extent. 
There  is  no  visible  evidence  of  a  regular  stone  wall ;  though  many 
stones  lie  in  confusion  on  the  slope  and  at  the  foot  of  the  wall,  on 
the  outer  side,  just  as  at  Fort  Ancient.  In  fact,  except  for  its 
smaller  area  and  the  immense  amount  of  burned  earth,  this  work 
was  apparently  intended  to  be  very  similar  to  the  great  fortification 
a  few  miles  farther  up  the  stream.  It  is  very  probable  that  the 
builders  made  low  retaining  walls  of  stones ;  and  these  may  still 
be  standing  where  the  earth  holds  them  in  position.  But  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe  that  a  solid  wall,  such  as  has  never  been  found 
elsewhere,  was  built  here. 

There  is  a  low  irregular  mound  of  earth  on  the  narrow  isth- 
mus, just  without  the  fort. 

Owing  to  a  lack  of  definite  knowledge  of  any  but  the  super- 
ficial aspects  of  this  work,  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  explain 
its  object,  the  cause  of  so  much  burned  earth,  or  the  possible 
method  of  construction. 

FORT    NEAR    HAMILTON. 

The  "  Fortified  Hill  "  in  Butler  county,  shown  in  figure  69 
(S.  &  D.,  16,  plate  VI)  is 

"on  the  west  side  of  the  Great  Miami  River,  three  miles  below  the  town 
of  Hamilton.  *  *  *  The  hill,  the  summit  of  which  it  occupies,  is 
about  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  present  bed  of  the  river,  and  is  not  far 
from  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  being  considerably  more  elevated 
than  any  other  in  the  vicinity.  It  is  surrounded  at  all  points,  except 
a  narrow  space  at  the  north,  by  deep  ravines,  presenting  steep  and  almost 
inaccessible  declivities.  The  descent  toward  the  north  is  gradual;  and 
from  that  direction  the  hill  is  easy  of  access.  *  *  *  Skirting  the 
brow  of  the  hill,  and  generally  conforming  to  its  outline,  is  a  wall  of 
mingled  earth  and  stone,  having  an  average  height  of  five  feet  by  thirty- 
five  feet  base.  It  has  no  accompanying  ditch ;  the  earth  composing  it, 
which  is  a  stiff  clay,  having  been  for  the  most  part  taken  up  from  the 
surface,  without  leaving  any  marked  excavation.  There  are  a  number 
of  'dug  holes,'  however,  at  various  points,  from  which  it  is  evident  a 
portion  of  the  material  was  obtained.  The  wall  is  interrupted  by  four 
gateways  or  passages,  each  twenty  feet  wide ;  one  opening  to  the  north,, 
one  on  the  approach  above  mentioned,  and  the  others  occurring  where 
the  spurs  of  the  hill  are  cut  off  by  the  parapet,  and  where  the  declivity 
is  least  abrupt.  They  are  all,  with  one  exception,  protected  by  inner 
lines  of  embankment,  of  a  most  singular  and  intricate  description.  The 
17 


258 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


^4k 

An 


FORTIFIED  H/LL 

Qut/et  County,  Ohio. 


Figure  69. 

•excavations  are  uniformly  near  the  gateways,  or  within  the  lines  cover- 
ing them.  None  of  them  are  more  than  sixty  feet  over,  nor  have  they 
any  considerable  depth.  Nevertheless,  they  all,  with  the  exception  of 
the  one  nearest  the  gateway  S,  contain  water  for  the  greater  portion, 
if  not  the  whole  of  the  year.  A  pole  may  be  thrust  eight  or  ten  feet 
into  the  soft  mud  at  the  bottom  of  those  at  E."  —  S.  &  D.,   16. 


Peculiar  EnclosiLre  near  Granville.  259 

The  stone  mounds,  S.  and  W.,  are  each  about  eight  feet  high. 
The  mound  at  the  north  contained  a  quantity  of  stone  which 
seemed  to  have  been  burned. 

"  The  ground  in  the  interior  of  this  work  gradually  rises,  as  indi- 
cated in  the  section,  to  the  height  of  twenty-six  feet  above  the  base 
of  the  wall,  and  overlooks  the  entire  adjacent  country."  —  S.  &  D,,  16. 

Owing  to  long  cultivation,  the  complicated  system  of  walls 
at  the  northern  end,  peculiar  to  this  work,  cannot  now  be  definitely 
followed.  Admitting,  however,  that  they  are  correctly  represented 
in  the  sketch,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  they  could  be  of  any  partic- 
ular service  as  a  means  of  defense.  There  is  a  narrow  ridge  con- 
necting the  part  of  the  hill  on  which  the  enclosure  stands  with  the 
higher  table-land  beyond;  but  the  secondary  walls  extend  some 
distance  to  each  side  of  this  and  are  either  opposite  to  slopes  less 
easy  of  ascent  than  at  other  points  not  so  strongly  defended,  or 
else  are  so  placed  that  an  intruder  could  not  be  seen  from  them 
until  he  had  surmounted  the  outer  wall.  In  case  a  determined 
rush  should  admit  an  enemy,  the  defenders  would  be  in  a  trap. 
The  same  amount  of  earth  piled  upon  the  exterior  wall  and  carried 
a  little  farther  out  on  the  isthmus,  would  make  a  better  protection. 

The  so-called  ''  Tlascalan  gateways  "  at  the  other  end  of  the 
enclosure  are  so  overgrown  with  trees  and  bushes,  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  ascertain  whether  they  are  correctly  figured  or  not ;  but 
it  can  be  seen  that  they  are  quite  unusual  in  their  conformation. 

The  wall  on  the  v/estern  side  was  never  heavy,  and  in  some 
places  can  not  now  be  found,  even  in  the  uncleared  land ;  while 
on  the  eastern  side  its  course  is  along  the  hill-side,  some  distance 
below  the  summit.  The  original  drawing  has  been  altered  to 
show  this  feature. 

FORT    NEAR   GRANVILLE. 

Figure  70  (S.  &  D.,  plate  TX,  No.  i)  is  known  as  ''Forti- 
fied Hill,"  two  miles  east  of  Granville.  It  must  not  be  confused 
wdth  the  "  Fortified  Hill  "  in  Butler  county. 

"  The  embankment  is  for  the  most  part  carried  around  the  hill 
considerably  below  the  summit  and  is  completely  overlooked  from  every 
portion  of  the  enclosed  area.  The  ditch  is  exterior,  the  earth  taken  out 
being  thrown  on  the  upper  side.  In  some  places  the  ditch  is  partially 
filled  by  earth  washed  in  and  the  space  behind  the  bank  leveled  up,  giving 
the  effect  of  a  terrace.  The  elevation  varies,  but  at  no  place  is  the  top  of 
the   wall   more   than   ten   feet  above   the  bottom   of  the  excavation.     On 


260 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


FORTIFIED  HILL 
^^^f  h/ear  G tarn i He,  Licking  Co.  O. 


Figure  70. 

top  of  the  hill  are  two  small  mounds  surrounded  by  a  circular  ditch  and 
embankment  a  hundred  feet  in  diameter.  North  of  these  is  a  truncated 
mound.  All  these  contain  altars,  thus  connecting  them  with  the  mounds 
of  the  large  low-land  enclosures.  Nothing  was  found  on  these  altars 
except  ashes  and  fragments  of  pottery.  "This  is  the  only  hill-work 
which  has  been  observed  to  embrace  a  minor  work  of  the  description  of 


Forts  in  Lickins^  and  Butler  Counties.  261 


■^^5 


the  work  here  presented.  *  *  The  principal  enclosure  is  palpably  a  de- 
fensive work  although  deficient  in  a  supply  of  water,  and  it  is  probable 
that  this  work,  together  with  one  of  like  character  upon  the  opposite  side 
of  the  valley,  three  miles  distant,  constituted  the  place  of  last  resort  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants.'  "  —  S.  &  D.,  24. 

FORT    BELOW    NEWARK. 

The  work  just  described  differs  from  the  ordinary  hill-top 
enclosures  in  having  the  embankment  within  the  ditch  instead  of 
outside.  Another  of  the  same  kind  may  be  seen  6h  miles  south- 
east of  Newark.  It  stands  on  a  hill  which  is  cut  off  on  everv  side 
by  deep  ravines  with  steep  slopes.  Surrounding  the  summit  is 
a  wall  2,176  feet  in  length,  winding  in  and  out  to  preserve  a  con- 
stant level.  One  end  of  the  hill  forms  a  ridge  somewhat  lower 
than  the  other  portion ;  and  here  is  located  a  gateway  89  feet  in 
width  opening  on  a  small  area  nearly  level.  Several  earth  and 
stone  mounds  in  various  directions  are  visible  from  this  point. 
This  work,  locally  known  as  ''  the  race  track,"  is  shown  In  figure 
71  (B.  E.  12,  468,  fig.  317.) 

FORT    ON    FLINT    RIDGE. 

Near  the  western  extremity  of  Flint  Ridge  is  a  fortification 
made  principally  of  flint  blocks  gathered  up  on  the  surface  or  from 
the  outcrops  close  at  hand  on  three  sides.  A  small  portion  ot  the 
eastern  side  is  composed  of  earth.  Figure  y2  (B.  E.  12,  469,  fig. 
318)  shows  the  shape.  Most  of  it  has  been  removed,  as  interfer- 
ing with  cultivation,  so  that  the  original  height  is  uncertain ;  but 
it  was  probably  not  great,  as  the  base  is  narrow  at  every  point. 
The  area  enclosed  is  about  seven  acres.  Within  stands  an  earth 
mound  100  feet  in  diameter  and  fifteen  feet  high;  and  the  debris 
of  a  small  stone  mound  which  is  now  from  one  to  three  feet  high 
and  scattered  over  an  area  thirty  feet  across. 

OTHER    HILL    FORTS. 

In  figures  73  and  74  (S  &  D.,  21.,  plate  VIII),  four  works  are  shown. 
Number  1  is  four  miles  above  Hamilton.  On  three  sides  are  high,  steep 
banks,  along  the  top  of  which  are  embankments ;  the  fourth  side,  leading 
out  on  a  table-land,  is  protected  by  a  wall  and  ditch.  A  peculiar  feature  in 
this  work  is  the  entrance.  The  walls  curve  inwardly  around  a  circle  of 
about  a  hundred  feet  diameter ;  outside  of  this  is  a  mound  about  five  feet 
high  and  forty  feet  across.  The  passageway  between  these  and  the  em- 
bankment is  only  six  feet  wide. 


262 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Fiprure  72  —  Fort  on  Flitit  F'iHcre. 


Large  Hill-top  Enclosures  in  Butler  County. 


263 


CANAL; 


SCA 


•'^  x■'''^jJ^''';a\^*--- 


™,.^-: 


6  Ml.  SOUTH-WEST     OP      HAMILTOH,     O. 


Figure  73. 


264 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  74. 


Who  Built  the  Hill-Top  Fortiiications?  265 

Number  2  consists  of  an  earthen  embankment  carried  around  a  high, 
detached  hill,  six  miles  south-west  of  Hamilton. 

Number  3  is  of  earth  and  stone,  on  a  high  terrace  two  and  a  half 
miles  above  Piqua.  Steep  bluffs  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  feet  high  al- 
most surround  it.  [In  accordance  with  the  usual  assertion  in  regard  to 
works  of  this  character,  it  is  stated  that  "  the  stones  *  *  of  this  rampart 
are  water-worn,  and  must  have  been  brought  from  the  bed  of  the  river  " ; 
though  it  is  never  explained  why  the  builders  should  have  been  at  this 
trouble  when  plenty  of  similar  stone  was  close  at  hand ;  the  "  water-worn  " 
appearance  being  due  to  ordinary  weathering  or  to  glacial  action]. 
Within  the  work  is  a  mound  five  feet  high  with  an  encircling  moat. 

Number  4  is  three  miles  below  Dayton;  it  is  a  rampart  of  earth  sur- 
rounding an  isolated  hill,  with  steep  slopes  on  every  side  except  toward 
the  south;  on  this  side  is  a  gateway  within  which  is  a  ditch  twenty  feet 
wide  and  seven  hundred  feet  long.  An  elevated  ridge,  and  a  depression  at 
h  forty  feet  deep,  within  the  wall,  are  natural  formations.  Along  the 
north-west  side  is  a  terrace,  apparently  artificial,  about  thirty  feet  below 
the  embankment.  —  S.  &  D.,  21. 

These  works  are  not  figured  as  possessing  any  striking  or 
novel  features,  but  on  account  of  their  close  resemblance  in  form 
to  the  fortifications  of  the  Iroquois.  Works  of  the  same  kind 
are  not  uncommon  in  various  parts  of  Kentucky  and  Indiana. 

TO  WHAT  PEOPLE  MAY  WE  ATTRIBUTE  THE  "FORTS"? 

With  aboriginal  methods,  the  construction  of  any  one  of 
the  large  hill-top  enclosures  necessarily  required  a  considerable 
time.  There  must  have  been  a  threat,  or  at  least  a  prospect, 
of  serious  danger  before  they  would  be  undertaken.  Yet,  if 
constructed  as  places  of  refuge  by  the  race  which  built  the 
earthworks  of  the  valleys,  as  is  the  universal  belief,  they  would 
have  to  be  completed  before  an  enemy  was  able  to  take  perman- 
ent possession  of  the  region. 

By  the  expression  ''  a  considerable  time  ",  is  not  meant  a 
period  of  years.  If  the  builders  of  the  forts  were  endowed  with 
the  foresight  to  prepare  for  a  remote  contingency ;  to  provide  a 
resort  from  enemies  who  might  come  upon  them  at  some  unknown 
future  time ;  to  anticipate  trouble  of  which  there  were  no  present 
indications ; — then  they  might  go  on  with  the  construction  at  their 
leisure.  But  if  menaced  while  still  unprepared  for  defense;  if 
compelled  to  take  measures  at  short  notice  for  the  preservation 
of  their  lives  or  liberties ;  especially  if  coerced  to  build  with  one 
hand  while  fighting  off  an  assailant  with  the  other; — then  each 


266  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

day  becomes  of  vital  importance.  "  Time  ",  in  such  event,  is  only 
a  comparative  term. 

The  actual  number  of  days  required  to  build  one  of  these 
forts  could  be  readily  determined  if  we  knew  the  number  of 
yards  of  material  in  it,  and  the  amount  of  work  a  man  could — or 
would — perform  in  a  day  with  a  basket  and  a  wooden  shovel. 
The  first  factor  it  is  possible  to  calculate;  the  second  can  only 
be  guessed  at. 

Overman  gives  the  contents  of  the  Fort  Hill  embankment 
as  50856  cubic  yards.  If  intended  for  temporary  quarters  only,, 
as  it  must  have  been  on  the  assumption  under  which  we  are 
calculating,  one  thousand  persons  would  not  be  an  excessive 
number  to  house  within  an  area  of  thirty-three  acres,  especially 
if  we  suppose  them  to  dwell  in  several  separate  villages  during 
intervals  of  peace.  Set  aside  one-half  of  these  as  too  young,  too 
old,  or  otherwise  unfitted  to  take  part  in  ordinary  labor.  Deduct 
one-half  the  moiety  to  engage  in  occupations  necessary  for  sub- 
sistence and  comfort.  This  will  leave  250  persons  who  may  put  in 
full  time  on  the  proposed  fortress.  Each  will  have  to  deposit 
204  yards  of  earth  and  stone,  none  of  which  need  be  moved  more 
than  one  hundred  feet;  the  average  distance  will  be  less  than 
sixty  feet,  even  if  the  ditch  from  which  it  is  obtained  be  made 
three  times  as  broad  as  the  embankment.  Half  a  cubic  foot  of 
this,  tightly  packed,  will  weigh  about  65  pounds,  which  is  a 
moderate  load.  Ten  minutes  will  be  ample  time  to  fill  and  empty 
a  basket.  At  this  rate,  each  man  would  deposit  one  cubic  yard 
in  a  day  of  nine  hours ;  so  that,  even  if  idle  more  than  one-third  of 
the  time,  the  number  of  men  indicated  could  construct  this  fort 
in  less  than  a  year.  Under  the  stress  of  fear  they  would  work 
faster  and  more  steadily ;  the  task  could  easily  be  finished  inside 
of  six  months,  if  necessary. 

In  the  case  of  a  structure  entirely  of  stone  the  question  may 
be  solved  in  another  manner.  Glenford  Fort  contains  26  acres ; 
with  the  above  number  of  men,  each  must  clear  up  a  little  more 
than  one-tenth  of  an  acre.  How  many  weeks  would  a  willing 
worker  demand  to  pick  up  all  the  stones  on  a  lot  measuring  fifty 
by  one  hundred  feet,  and  carry  them  about  one  hundred  yards  ? 

The  hill-top  forts  also  afford  almost  positive  proof  that 
the  territory  occupied  by  their  authors  was  quite  restricted.  It 
is   not   credible   that   anv   community    would   erect   impregnable 


Who  Built  the  Hill-Top  Fortifications?  26T 

fortifications  in  the  heart  of  their  country,  leaving  all  the  outlying 
region  unprotected,  especially  in  those  directions  from  which  it 
is  almost  certain  an  attack  was  to  be  expected. 

But  there  is  another  consideration.  In  form,  situation,  and 
apparent  purpose  of  construction,  these  forts  are  so  unlike  the 
geometrical  earthworks  of  the  plains  as  to  create  a  doubt  whether 
the  two  classes  of  works  are  to  be  attributed  to  one  race.  Except 
for  their  greater  size,  they  bear  a  decided  resemblance  to  those 
along  the  lakes,  and  eastward.  This  similarity  between  works 
in  the  northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  State  suggests  the  idea 
of  racial  connection  between  their  builders,  closer  at  least  than 
that  between  either  of  them  and  the  designers  of  the  squares  and 
circles.  Even  though  those  writers  who  make  a  distinction 
between  the  authors  of  the  works  north  and  those  south  of  the 
middle  of  the  State  have  not  questioned  the  statements  that  all 
enclosures  in  any  particular  locality,  no  matter  what  their  form 
and  position,  are  due  to  one  race,  yet  in  view  of  the  migratory 
instincts  and  habits  of  all  native  American  peoples  of  whom  we 
have  any  knowledge,  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  a  single 
tribe  or  race  has  held  for  unnumbered  centuries  continuous  and 
undisputed  possession  of  a  territory  with  a  definite  boundary. 
Such  stability  is  impossible  among  savages  or  barbarians — at 
least  such  as  have  lived  in  this  country.  Consequently,  we  are  not 
justified  in  the  supposition  that  no  race  or  tribe  other  than  the 
Mound  Builders  has  ever  lived  in  southern  Ohio;  or  that  no 
other  people  have  ever  found  it  necessary  to  fortify  them- 
selves against  attack. 

All  writers  on  our  antiquities  have  agreed  that  these  strong 
fortresses  are  intended  as  defensive  enclosures  to  which  the  Mound 
Builders  would  retire  at  the  approach  of  a  foe  numerically  super- 
ior. But  most  of  them  are  many  miles  from  the  fertile  lands 
where  the  Mound  Builders  had  their  permanent  homes.  They 
are  in  regions  not  easily  accessible,  without  an  adequate  water 
supply  inside  the  walls,  and  there  is  but  little  cultivable  land  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  several  of  them.  That  a  people  with 
any  judgment  should  make  a  long  journey  to  reach  a  place 
so  unsuited  for  their  manner  of  life — or  at  least  amid  surround- 
ings so  totally  unlike  those  to  which  they  were  accustomed — 
carrying  with  them  their  property  and  a  large  supply  of  food — 
seems  incredible.    Their  towns  could  readily  be  defended  against 


268  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

assault  or  attacks  such  as  would  be  made  by  predatory  bands; 
and  a  foe  of  sufficient  strength  to  conquer  them  in  their  homes 
could  easily  pen  them  up  in  these  forts  until  starvation  extermin- 
ated them.  Again,  even  if  we  admit  for  the  moment  that  all 
mounds  on  hills  are  intended  as  "signal  stations"  from  which 
warning  could  be  given  of  the  advance  of  an  enemy,  such  mes- 
sages could  not  reach  the  settlements  in  time  to  allow  an  entire 
community  to  migrate  with  the  proper  supplies  and  safely 
ensconce  themselves  before  the  foe  would  be  upon  them.  The 
latter  had  no  roads  to  build,  no  wagon  trains  to  drag  through 
the  forests;  every  warrior  was  his  own  commissary  department 
and  lost  no  time  in  waiting  for  rations  to  overtake  him.  A 
war  party,  unincumbered  with  impedimenta  of  any  sort,  could 
travel  many  more  miles  in  a  day  than  a  party  containing  women, 
children,  and  feeble  persons ;  and  we  are  not  to  suppose  these 
would  be  left  behind  to  fall  victims  to  the  first  onslaught.  If 
villages  and  crops  were  left  without  protection,  what  would 
remain  of  them  when  the  owners  returned?  The  amount  of  labor 
expended  upon  Fort  Ancient,  or  any  other  of  these  immense 
works,  would  be  ample  to  render  impregnable  the  scattered  homes 
of  all  the  people  who  could  find  shelter  within  its  massive  walls. 

These  structures,  however,  are  unmistakably  defensive  in 
their  nature ;  and  their  size  indicates  warfare  of  no  small  propor- 
tions. They  prove  that  the  Mound  Builders  or  some_ other  people 
in  Ohio  engaged  in  desperate  conflicts  involving  large  forces. 
If  we  accept  the  customary  solution  of  the  fate  of  the  Mound 
Builders,  namely,  that  they  were  driven  from  the  country,  then 
it  is  plain  these  forts  were  a  prominent  factor  in  the  struggle. 

It  is  with  some  hesitancy  that  an  opinion  is  here  advanced 
very  dift'erent  from  Vv^hat  has  hitherto  been  admitted  without 
question ;  but  as  it  does  not  seem  that  the  Mound  Builders  could, 
or  would,  have  made  them,  we  must  attribute  the  isolated  forts  to 
the  invading  party. 

There  is  no  improbability  in  the  suggestion  that  at  least 
some  of  the  hill-top  and  other  irregular  enclosures  of  Ohio  and 
the  adjacent  States  may  owe  their  existence  to  a  race  in  the 
same  stage  of  advancement  as  several  tribes  that  lived  in  the 
Northwest  Territory  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century; 
while  the  complicated  earthworks  such  as  those  at  Newark  and 
Portsmouth,  and  in  Ross  county,  may  have  their  origin  in  the 


IVho  Built  the  Hill-Top  Fortificaiions?  269 

necessities  of  some  tribe  in  the  social  condition  of  the  sedentary- 
Indians  of  the  southern  States.  An  exception,  it  is  true,  exists 
in  structures  hke  Fort  Miami  or  Spruce  Hill.  These  might  be 
permanently  occupied  by  a  farming-  community,  for  they  are 
upon  hills  which  rise  directly  from  level,  productive  bottoms. 
But  wild,  rugged  country,  like  that  in  which  Fort  Hill  and  Glen- 
ford  Fort  are  located,  is  suitable  only  for  hunters  and  warriors. 
If  the  latter  attempted  to  occupy  portions  of  southern  Ohio  at 
the  time  it  was  in  possession  ot  the  Mound  Builders,  they  would 
need  a  base  of  operations,  and  a  safe  retreat  when  repulsed  or 
when  not  actively  engaged.  Such  a  place  must  be  difficult  to 
assault,  easy  to  defend,  and  at  some  distance  from  towns  against 
which  the  operations  of  its  garrisons  were  directed — all  which 
conditions  are  complied  with  in  the  sites  of  the  insulated  forts. 
To  the  natural  inquiry  ''  What  were  the  inhabitants  doing,  all 
the  time  this  fortifying  was  going  on?"  it  may  be  replied  "  What 
could  they  do?"  If  their  dread  of  marauders  would  lead  all 
the  inhabitants  over  thousands  of  square  miles,  to  abandon  enclo- 
sures in  the  bottoms  and  crowd  into  those  on  the  hills,  as  we  are 
told  they  did,  it  would  prevent  them  from  molesting  the  invaders 
when  the  latter  chose  to  settle  in  one  spot. 

Let  us  examine  the  conditions  as  they  are  set  forth  by  all 
writers  who  have  studied  the  subject: — There  is  an  agricultural 
people,  living  in  the  midst  of  fertile,  easily  tilled  lands ;  there  is 
a  broken  country  all  about  them  abounding  in  game;  there  is  a 
wild,  roving,  hunting  race,  at  some  place  to  the  northward  or 
eastward.  The  latter  people  are  more  accustomed  to  warfare 
than  the  former;  they  want  game,  they  also  have  no  objection  to 
plundering  villages ;  when  resting  from  war  or  the  hunt,  and  not 
wishing  to  return  to  their  homes,  they  must  be  prepared  for 
reprisals.  This  naturally  leads  to  the  selection  of  a  position 
where  they  may  easily  defend  themselves,  and  to  the  construction 
at  the  site  chosen  of  a  protective  work  of  some  sort — timber,  earth, 
or  stone,  according  to  their  numbers,  the  relative  convenience  or 
abundance  of  material,  and  the  anticipated  length  of  occupation. 

The  large  area  and  massive  walls  of  some  of  these  struct- 
ures are,  it  is  true,  presumptive  evidence  against  such  a  hypothesis. 
Hunting  or  war  parties  were  never  known  to  fortify  on  so  large 
a  scale. 


270  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

But  if  a  tribe  or  clan,  influenced  by  the  abundance  of  game 
or  the  opportunities  for  plunder,  should  decide  to  settle  in  a  coun- 
try already  in  possession  of  a  people  opposed  to  the  intrusion  of 
strangers,  it  would  be  compelled  to  take  such  measures  as  were 
necessary.  If  a  defensive  work  for  the  protection  of  a  village 
of  a  thousand  persons,  must  have  ten  times  the  size  or  strength 
of  one  that  is  sufficient  for  a  village  of  a'  hundred  inhabitants, 
by  the  same  conditions  there  are  at  once  ten  times  as  many 
laborers  to  take  part  in  the  work. 

With  the  advent  of  different  bodies  of  aliens,  the  original 
inhabitants  may  have  found  themselves  compelled  to  adopt  the 
same  kind  of  tactics ;  to  abandon  their  more  exposed  settlements 
and  congregate  in  defensible  positions  which  they  would  fortify 
after  the  manner  learned  from  their  adversaries. 

There  is  another  view  of  the  matter.  Unless  the  Mound 
Builders  were  the  first  inhabitants  of  Ohio,  they  must,  of  course, 
have  come  from  some  other  region  and  they  must  have  found  the 
territory  already  occupied.  Either  war  or  amalgamation  would 
follow.  If  the  former — which  is  the  more  likely,  for  such  is 
''  the  natural  condition  of  man  "  in  a  savage  state — either  the 
invaders  or  the  earlier  inhabitants  may  have  built  some  of  the 
forts. 

So  we  have  our  choice  among  four  possible  sources,  any 
or  all  of  which  may  have  to  be  taken  into  consideration  in  seeking 
the  origin  of  the  strictly  defensive  enclosures : — The  Mound 
Builders,  on  their  arrival ;  the  tribe,  or  tribes,  whom  they  found 
here;  invaders,  toward  the  close  of  the  Mound  Builders'  occupa- 
tion ;  and  Mound  Builders  in  resisting  the  last. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


GRADED  WAYS,  TERRACES,  EFFIGIES,  AND  ANOM- 
ALOUS   STRUCTURES. 
A.  — GRADED   WAYS. 

ON  page  209  is  a  description  of  the  possibly  artificial  grade 
at  the  Turner  Group.     So  far  as  known,  no  other  pas- 
sageway is  formed  by  making  a  fill  to  connect  plains 
of  different  levels. 

But  at  several  places  in  Ohio  gentle  inclines  through  a 
depression,  from  a  higher  terrace  to  a  lower,  or  to  a  stream,  are 
attributed  to  the  Mound  Builders,  who  are  supposed  to  have  cut 
them  out  for  roadways,  throwing  the  earth  to  either  side. 

Squier  and  Davis  have  the  following  reference  to  them. 
"  There  is  a  singular  class  of  earthworks,  occurring  at  various  points 
at  the  West,  *  *  the  purposes  of  which  to  the  popular  mind,  if  not  to 
that  of  the  antiquarian,  seem  very  clear.  These  are  the  graded  ways,  as- 
scending  sometimes  from  one  terrace  to  another,  and  ocasionally  de- 
scending towards  the  banks  of  rivers  or  water-courses.  The  one  at  Mar- 
ietta, is  of  the  latter  description ;  as  is  also  that  at  Piqua,  Ohio.  One  of 
.  the  former  character  occurs  near  Richmonddale,  Ross  county,  Ohio ;  and 
another,  and  the  most  remarkable  one,  about  one  mile  below  Piketon, 
Pike  county,  in  the  same  State.  A  plan  and  view  of  the  latter  is  here- 
with presented.  [  See  figure  75  (S.  &  D.,  88,  plate  XXXI,  No.  1)  ].  It 
consists  of  a  graded  way  from  the  second  to  the  third  terrace,  the  level 
of  which  is  here  seventeen  feet  above  that  of  the  former.  The  way  is 
ten  hundred  and  eighty  feet  long  by  two  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  wide 
at  one  extremity,  and  two  hundred  and  three  feet  wide  at  the  other, 
measured  between  the  bases  of  the  banks.  The  earth  is  thrown  outward 
on  either  hand,  forming  embankments  varying  upon  the  outer  sides  from 
five  to  eleven  feet  in  height ;  yet  it  appears  that  much  more  earth  has  been 
excavated  than  enters  into  these  walls.  At  the  lower  extremity  of  the 
grade,  the  walls  upon  the  interior  sides  measure  no  less  than  twenty-two 
feet  in  perpendicular  height." 

"  It  is,  of  course,  useless  to  speculate  upon  the  probable  purpose  of 
this  work.  At  first  glance,  it  seems  obvious;  namely  that  it  was  con- 
structed simply  to  facilitate  the  ascent  from  one  terrace  to  another.  But 
the  long  line  of  embankment  extending  from  it,  and  the  manifest  con- 

(271) 


272  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

nection  which  exists  between  it  and  the  mounds  upon  the  plain  unsettle 
this  conclusion."  —  S.  &  D.,  88-9. 


A. AT  MARIETTA. 

Of  the  four  mentioned  by  them,  that  at  Marietta  has  been 
most  often  described ;  but  only  because  more  people  have  seen  it. 
Among  the  earlier  notices,  these  may  be  found : — 

"  A  causeway  forty  yards  wide,  and  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  high, 
rounded  like  a  turnpike  road,  leads  from  it  to  the  river."  —  Cuming,  106. 

In  a  numbered  sketch,  made  in  1785,  of  the  Marietta  works, 
is  given: — 

"  No.  6,  Coveied  away  from  the  town  to  the  then  locality  of  the  river, 
which  is  supposed  at  that  time  to  have  run  along  the  edge  of  the  second 
bottom.  These  walls  are  now  twenty  feet  high,  and  the  graded  road  be- 
tween them  was  one  hundred  feet  wide,  and  beautifully  rounded  like  a 
modern  turn-pike."  —  Stebbins,   329. 

"  The  entrances  at  the  middle  are  the  largest,  particularly  that  on  the 
side  next  the  Muskingum.  From  this  outlet  is  a  covert  way,  formed  of 
two  parallel  walls  of  earth,  231  feet  distant  from  each  other,  measuring 
from  centre  to  centre.  The  walls  at  the  most  elevated  part  on  the  inside 
are  21  feet  in  height  and  42  feet  in  breath  at  the  base,  but  on  the  outside 
average  only  five  feet  high.  This  forms  a  passage  about  360  feet  in 
length,  leading  by  a  gradual  descent  to  the  low  grounds,  where  it  probably 
at  the  time  of  its  construction  reached  the  margin  of  the  river.  Its  walls 
commence  at  sixty  feet  from  the  ramparts  of  the  fort,  and  increase  in  ele- 
vation as  the  way  descends  towards  the  river ;  and  the  bottom  is  crowned 
in  the  centre  in  the  manner  of  a  well-formed  turnpike  road."  —  Harris,  149. 

The  account  by  Squier  and  Davis  Is  more  complete. 

The  "  Via  Sacra,"  or  graded  way,  at  Marietta  "  is  six  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  long  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  wide  between  the  banks,  and 
consists  of  an  excavated  passage  descending  regularly  from  the  plain,  upon 
which  the  works  just  described  are  situated,  to  the  alluvions  of  the  river. 
The  earth,  in  part  at  least,  is  thrown  outward  upon  either  side  forming 
embankments  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  height.  The  centre  of  the  exca- 
vated way  is  slightly  raised  and  rounded,  after  the  manner  of  the  paved 
streets  of  modern  cities.  The  cross-section  gh  [see  figure  15]  exhibits 
this  feature.  Measured  between  the  summits  of  the  banks,  the  width  of  the 
way  is  two  hundred  and  thirty  feet.  At  the  base  of  the  grade,  the  walls 
upon  the  interior  are  twenty  feet  high.  From  this  point  there  is  a  slight 
descent,  for  the  distance  of  several  hundred  feet  to  the  bank  of  the 
river,  which  is  here  thirty-five  or  forty  feet  in  height.  [There  is  an] 
entire  absence  of  remains  of  antiquity  upon  the  beautiful  terraces  to  which 
this  graded  passage  leads.  They  may  nevertheless  have  been  once  as 
thickly  populated  as  they  are  now ;  and  this  passage  may  have  been  the 


The  Via  Sacra.  273 

grand  avenue  leading  to  the  sacred  plain  above,  through  which  assemblies 
and  processions  passed,  in  the  solemn  observances  of  a  mysterious  wor- 
ship." —  S.  &  D.,  74. 

The  plan  given  does  not  represent  the  squares  as  "  exact  ". 
Whittlesey  is  less  romantic  in  his  explanation  of  its  probable 
use ; — 

"'The  grade  at  Marietta  leads  from  a  strong  work  down  to  the  Mus- 
kingum River,  and  had  an  evident  purpose,  that  of  access  to  water.  It  is 
principally  an  excavation  and  not  an  embankment."  —  Whittlesey, 
Works,  9. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  work  is  artificial ;  but  it  was  never 
made  for  the  sole  purpose  of  being  used  as  a  roadway  or  means 
of  passage  between  the  two  terraces.  It  is  wide  enough  for  a 
hundred  men  to  walk  abreast  in  it,  and  leads  out  on  a  strip 
of  bottom  land  but  little  if  any  wider  than  itself  and  which 
could  never  have  been  much  wider.  It  is  more  than  likely  that 
earth  was  obtained  here  for  making  mounds  and  embankments 
in  the  vicinity.  Very  probably  it  originated  in  a  pathway  to  the 
river,  which  was  gradually  widened  by  removal  of  earth  for  the 
works.  If  this  was  the  case,  another  path  led  from  the  lower 
terrace  to  the  water.  The  stream  may  have  been  reached,  how- 
ever, through  the  ravine  which  discharges  almost  in  a  line  with 
the  upper  side  of  the  ''  Via  Sacra  ". 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  earliest  recorded  measurement 
gives  the  height  of  the  walls  on  each  side  of  the  cut,  as  only  five 
feet.  The  scale  of  "  twenty  feet  "  for  the  inside,  includes  the 
undisturbed  earth  of  the  side-slopes.  These  walls,  which  long 
ago  disappeared,  were  probably  built  of  earth  taken  up  from  the 
surface  of  the  upper  terrace,  as  was  the  case  at  Piketon. 

The  water  of  the  Aluskingum  is  now  at  a  much  higher  level 
than  it  was  formerly,  owing  to  the  dam  near  the  mouth;  but  if 
ever  as  low  as  denoted  by  Squier  and  Davis,  it  is  very  clear  that 
the  graded  way  was  made  without  any  reference  to  the  stream, 

B. AT    RICHMONDDALE. 

No  such  work  exists  in  the  vicinity  of.  this  village ;  nor  is 

there  any  visible  evidence  of  aboriginal  occupation  about  there, 

except  a   few  mounds   scattered   over  the   high   terrace   to  the 

north.     None  of  the  latter  are  within  a  mile  of  Richmonddale ; 

18 


274  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  there  is  no  conceivable  reason  why  a  "  graded  way  "  should 
be  made,  when  there  is  no  place  for  it  either  to  begin  or  end. 
Probably  the  authors  allude  to  some  one  of  the  numerous  ravines 
in  which  no  water  now  flows  on  account  of  changes  of  slope 
carrying  drainage  in  other  directions. 

C. AT  PIQUA. 

The  reference  to  this  is  based  upon  Major  Long's  observa- 
tions early  in  the  century.  It  is  evident  we  have  here  to  deal  only 
with  a  natural  ravine  or  guUey,  on  one  side  of  which  an  embank- 
ment has  been  made. 

At  Piqua,  "  near  the  bank  of  the  river,  there  are  remains  of  a  water- 
way; these  remains  consist  of  a  ditch  dug  down  to  the  edge  of  the  river, 
the  earth  from  the  same  having  been  thrown  up  principally  on  the  south 
side  or  that  which  fronts  the  river;  the  breadth  between  the  two  para- 
pets is  much  wider  near  the  water  than  at  a  distance  from  it,  so  that  it 
may  have  been  used  either  for  the  purpose  of  offering  a  safe  passage  down 
to  the  river,  or  as  a  sort  of  harbor  in  which  canoes  might  be  drawn  up ; 
or  perhaps,  as  is  most  probable,  it  was  intended  to  serve  both  purposes. 
This  waterway  resembles,  in  some  respects,  that  found  near  Marietta,  but 
its  dimensions  are  smaller.  The  remains  of  this  work  are  at  present  very 
inconsiderable,  and  are  fast  washing  away,  as  the  road  which  runs  along 
the  bank  of  the  river  intersects  it,  and,  in  the  making  of  it,  the  parapet  has 
been  leveled  and  the  ditch  filled  up."  —  Long,  St.  Peter's,  52. 

D. AT  PIKETON. 

The  work  at  Piketon  has  long  been  cited  as  the  most 
remarkable  instance  of  this  form  of  aboriginal  industry.  Figure 
76  from  the  original  drawing  by  Squier  and  Davis,  and  repro- 
duced in  a  hundred  publications  since  their  time,  has  always 
been  given  as  a  correct  representation.  The  actual  work  is 
shown  in  figure  '/y,  in  plan  and  section,  from  a  recent  careful 
survey.  It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no  "  crown  "  to  the  roadway, 
as  their  cross-section  shows,  except  that  which  is  due  to  the 
■construction  of  a  turnpike  passing  through  it;  and  the  error 
and  exaggeration,  in  various  other  respects,  of  their  "  plan  and 
view  "  will  be  apparent  at  a  glance.  In  itself  the  work  is  of  no 
special  interest  or  importance,  and  the  details  are  trivial ;  but 
they  show  a  negligent,  slip-shod  manner  which  casts  doubt  on 
more  important  work,  and  should  be  gone  into  with  some  minute- 
ness, because  these  perverted  accounts  have  done  much  toward 


The  Pike  County  Graded  Way.  275 

impressing  readers  with  erroneous  ideas  of  the  people  who  are 
credited  with  its  formation.  Compare  the  "view''  with  the 
sections. 

The  depression  is  not  in  any  degree  artificial  but  is  due 
entirely  to  natural  causes.  Formerly,  when  Beaver  creek  was 
at  a  much  higher  level  than  its  present  bed,  at  least  a  part  of  its 
waters  found  their  outlet  through  this  cut-off  or  thoroughfare. 
Its  length,  following  the  curve  from  the  creek  bank  to  the  lower 
terrace  at  the  other  end,  is  2225  feet;  at  the  narrowest  part  it 
measures  120  feet  across.  The  elevation  of  the  upper  terrace 
above  the  lower  is  22  feet — not  17.  The  greatest  base  measure  of 
either  wall  is  69  feet;  one  of  them  is  636  feet,  the  other  761  feet, 
in  length  along  the  top.  The  east  wall  has  been  cultivated  until 
not  more  than  three  feet  high;  the  west  wall  is  untouched,  and 
only  a  few  rods  of  it  have  an  elevation  of  more  than  six  feet. 
Instead  of  tapering  to  a  point  at  the  south  end,  the  west  wall 
is  higher  there  than  anywhere  else,  having  the  appearance  of 
a  mound  with  an  elevation  of  nine  feet.  Xo  earth  was  carried 
up  out  of  the  depression ;  that  composing  the  walls  was  gathered 
on  the  surface  and  piled  along  the  brink  of  each  bank,  a  part 
of  it  being  allowed  to  spread  down  the  sides  in  order  to  produce 
a  steeper  slope.  Both  walls  change  direction  at  more  than  one 
point ;  and  so  far  from  extending  its  entire  length  on  the  upper 
terrace,  the  east  wall  descends  the  slope  and  terminates  near  the 
bottom.  The  measure  of  ''  1080  feet  "  so  frequently  found  in 
other  parts  of  Squier'and  Davis's  descriptions,  as  well  as  here, 
will  not  apply  to  any  part  of  the  ''  graded  way  "  unless  the  line 
be  carried  out  into  the  open  fields.  If  the  walls  were  leveled 
and  all  the  earth  in  them  spread  out  evenly,  it  would  not  make 
a  difference  of  more  than  two  feet  in  the  elevation  of  the  space 
between  them. 

The  early  mistakes  in  regard  to  this  work  are  repeated  and 
exaggerated  by  ^IcLean. 

Whittlesey  says : — 

"  The  great  excavated  road  at  Piketon  also  descended  to  water."  — 
Whittlesey.  Works.  9. 

While,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  not  "  excavated  "  by  human 
labor,  it  undoubtedly  once  "descended  to  water,"  though  not  in 
the  sense  he  means  to  convey.  It  is  cut  through  the  fourth  or 
Iiighest  terrace,  and  terminates  on  the  third,  at  the  end  toward 


276 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


J^sstts^i^ 


I,  f  I 


^1 II 


m 


Figure  75. 


The  Fikcton  Graded  Way. 


277 


Figure   76  —  Squier  and   Davis's   "view"   of   the   Graded   Way. 


Figure  77  — The  "Graded  Way"  at  Piketon. 


278  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  river,  which  then  flowed  at  that  level.  When  Beaver  creek 
carved  out  its  present  channel,  the  old  thoroughfare  remained 
practically  unchanged  for  an  unknown  number  of  centuries,  until 
the  Mound  Builders  came  along  and  built  their  little  walls  on 
either  side,  all  unconscious  of  the  trouble  they  were  making  for 
future  archaeologists. 

E. ABOVE    WAVERLY. 

Colonel  Whittlesey  falls  into  a  worse  error  concerning  another 
old  "  cut-off  ".  This  was  made  by  the  Scioto,  after  the  third  ter- 
race was  formed.  It  would  be  difficult  indeed  to  "  discover  the 
spot  to  which  the  earth  was  transported  ",  as  it  has  gone  toward 
making  low  bottoms  farther  down  the  river.     He  describes  it  as 

an  excavation  in  Big  Bottom,  "  near  the  line  between  Pike  and  Ross 
counties.  The  design  appears  to  have  been  to  form  a  cut  or  passage  from 
the  bottom  land  above  Svvitzer's  Point  to  the  bottom  land  below.  Only 
a  very  small  portion  of  the  earth  removed  is  now  to  be  seen ;  having 
been  transported  to  some  spot  which  I  did  not  discover.  At  the  north- 
east end  of  the  east  bank  is  a  mound.  A  little  to  the  west  and  north- 
west is  a  natural  ridge  which  appears  to  have  been  trimmed  by  art,  and 
to  have  been  used  in  connection  with  the  lower  portion  of  the  western 
line  of  the  embankment.  The  mass  of  earth  removed  here  is  greater 
than  at  Piketon."  —  Whittlesey,  Works,  7. 

F. NEWARK. 

"  There  is  also  a  grade,  partly  in  excavation  and  partly  in  bank,  from 
a  portion  of  the  Newark  works  in  Licking  county,  leading  to  a  branch 
of  Licking  or  Pataskala  river."  —  Whittlesey,  Works,  9. 

This  has  been  described  under  the  Newark  enclosures. 

G. NEAR    BOURNEVILLE. 

Atwater  alludes  to  the  "graded  way  to  the  spring"  at  the 
ellipse  described  on  page  217. —  Atwater,  149. 

It  never  appears  to  occur  to  these  writers  that  the  existence 
of  springs,  and  of  an  easy  approach  to  them,  may  have  deter- 
mined the  location  of  earthworks.  They  seem  to  proceed  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  builders  made  their  enclosures  at  random, 
and  then  set  to  work  to  make  the  locality  habitable. 

H. AT    MADISONVILLE. 

"  The  ancient  roadway  near  Madisonville,  is  cut  along  the  face  of 
a  steep  hill  extending  from  the  creek  to  the  top  of  the  hill.      It  is  upward 


Graded  Way  in  Butler  County.  279 

of  1,600  feet  in  length,  having  an  average  width  of  twenty-five  feet." — 
Howe,  II,  23,  condensed. 

The  only  "ancient  roadway"  at  this  place  is  an  old  wagon 
road,  now  overgrown  with  trees  and  partially  destroyed.  It  is 
not  at  all  like  any  prehistoric  work,  either  in  its  position  or  its 
construction.  It  begins  in  a  ravine  and  ends  at  the  top  of  the 
hill  near  a  pioneer  farmhouse ;  and  there  are  no  aboriginal  remains 
anywhere  near  it. 

I. NEAR    CARLISLE. 

McLean  describes  with  much  minuteness  a  "graded  way," 
about  two  miles  west  of  Carlisle  in  Butler  County.  This  is 
raised  instead  of  sunken.  He  traces  it  from  the  top  of  a  hill, 
down  the  slope,  across  a  bottom  or  "upper  terrace"  to  the  bank 
of  Twin  creek,  giving  numerous  measurements.  Here  it  stops ; 
but  he  imagines  it  as  formerly  extending  across  the  "second  ter- 
race," which  was  probably  a  "swamp"  at  one  time  and  needed 
this  "causeway"  in  order  to  enable  the  Mound  Builder  to  reach 
the  fort  from  which  the  "graded  way"  proceeds.  He  attempts 
to  establish  a  chronology,  by  supposing  all  this  "swamp"  to  have 
been  carried  away  by  erosion,  to  the  level  of  the  "second  terrace," 
which  he  places  thirty-one  feet  below  the  "upper  terrace."  No 
definite  number  of  years  is  given,  because  there  is  no  measure 
of  erosion,  and  so 

"  The  question  is,  'how  long  has  it  taken  Twin  Creek  to  cut  the 
thirty-one  feet?'"  —  McLean,  134. 

The  site  of  this  professed  artificial  roadway  is  on  a  hill- 
side overlooking  the  valley  of  Twin  creek,  and  on  the  bottom 
land  at  its  foot.  Two  nearly  parallel  deep  ravines,  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  apart,  form  a  headland  with  steep,  almost  precipitous, 
sides.  Around  the  margin  of  this  and  across  the  rear  end  of 
it  an  embankment  is  carried.  On  the  side  toward  the  creek  it 
curves  inward  to  surround  the  head  of  a  small  ravine  which 
affords  an  easy  approach  from  the  bottom  land  below ;  conse- 
quently there  is  no  need  for  a  "graded  way,"  and  none  was 
ever  made.  The  ridge  described  as  such  is  entirely  a  natural 
formation,  due  to  erosion.  The  upper  portion  preserves  the 
ordinary  slope  of  the  ground,  as  may  be  understood  from  his 
measurement  which  gives  an  incline  of  more  than  twenty 
degrees.     This  does  not  sound  large,  but  makes  a  pretty  stiff 


280  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

climb,  nevertheless.  That  part  of  the  ''way"  along  the  foot  of 
the  hill  is  due  to  the  approach  of  the  ravine  on  one  side  toward 
a  shallow  washout  on  the  other.  What  McLean  calls  the  con- 
tinuation of  this  "graded  way"  across  the  bottom,  or  "upper  ter- 
race," is  nothing  but  the  ridge  formed  by  an  old  fence  row  and 
by  the  earth  thrown  up  in  making  a  turn  with  a  plow  at  the  end 
of  the  field ;  it  is  visible  only  in  some  places,  as  he  says,  and  never 
had  any  existence  where  it  is  not  now  to  be  seen.  His  "second 
terrace"  is  nothing  but  the  shore  of  the  creek,  and  is  subject  to 
overflow  with  every  hard  rain  —  unless,  indeed,  he  means  the 
low  bottom  beyond  the  creek.  This  may  once  have  been  a 
"swamp,"  as  he  suggests;  but  if  so  it  existed  before  the  stream 
was  formed,  and  extended  to  the  hills  several  hundred  vards 
away.  If  the  Mound  Builder  was  here  at  that  time,  he  v^^aw  the 
retreat  of  the  ice-sheet;  for  it  was  very  shortly  after  that  time 
that  Twin  creek  began  its  task  of  "cutting  down  the  thirty-one 
feet." 

In  a  word,  it  may  be  said  that  with  the  single  exception  at 
Marietta,  the  alleged  "excavated  graded  ways"  are  natural 
depressions,  possibly  slightly  modified,  which  happened  to  be 
where  they  were  needed ;  or  the  place  was  taken  possession  of 
because  the  grade  was  there. 

The  few  pathways  which  are  actually  artificial  have  escaped 
notice  by  reason  of  their  insignificance.  Where  a  group  of 
works  or  a  village-site  is  located  on  a  terrace  immediately  above 
a  very  steep  slope,  steps  were  no  doubt  cut  in  the  bank,  or  per- 
haps a  narrow  passage  way  dug,  to  facilitate  ascent.  The 
depression  thus  begun  would  deepen  and  widen  with  every  storm, 
until  finally  a  trough  with  considerable  width  and  easy  slope 
would  be  eroded,  which  can  be  distinguished  from  one  entirely 
natural  only  by  the  fact  that  no  water  from  the  upper  plain 
drains  into  it.  Such  gullies  may  be  observed  at  the  present  day 
along  the  banks  of  any  stream  whose  banks  are  of  soft,  loose 
earth,  up  and  down  which  persons  are  accustomed  to  pass  fre- 
quently. They  are  not  uncommon  where  prehistoric  village-sites 
were  located  on  a  bank  with  a  tolerably  steep  slope ;  but,  as 
stated,  their  origin  is  overlooked. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  "graded  way"  that  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Scioto  Valley,  is  a  ravine  of  this  kind  just  north  of  the 
circle  at  High  Banks.     The  river  bluff,  about  sixty  feet  high  at 


Terraces.  281 

this  point,  is  so  steep  as  to  be  very  difficult  of  ascent.  A  path- 
way was  made  by  the  inmates  or  builders  of  the  circle,  in  order 
to  reach  the  water.  This  is  now  a  large  gully.  In  the  loose 
sand  and  gravel  forming  the  bluff,  rains  would  rapidly  erode  the 
sides  and  bottom  of  such  a  path,  and  in  a  comparatively  short 
time  cut  it  down  to  an  easy  slope. 

Passageways  similar  to  this  could  be  cited,  but  no  other  is 
so  large. 

B.  —  TERRACES. 

AT    FORT   ANCIENT    AND    WAYNESVILLE. 

Three  terraces  are  represented  on  some  maps,  as  existing 
on  the  steep  hill-side  where  the  fort  makes  its  nearest  approach 
to  the  river.  Two  are  undoubtedly  artificial.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river  is  another,  extending  fully  a  mile.  Still  another 
is  to  be  seen  across  the  deep  ravine  north  of  the  fort. 

"  These  terraces  are  from  20  to  25  feet  wide ;  they  run  along  the 
hill-sides  with  surprising  regularity  of  level.  *  *  *  The  terrace 
•across  the  river  is  137.7  feet  above  low-water  level.  *  *  *  The  second 
north  of  the  fort  is  136.6  feet;  [that]  along  the  Fort  hill  is  135.2  feet, 
there  being  thus  an  extreme  difference  of  about  30  inches.  There  can 
be  no  question  that  these  terraces  are  artificial.  They  terminate 
abruptly  at  either  end  without  any  change  in  natural  surface  conditions, 
which  would  not  be  the  case  if  they  were  due  to  water  action  in  the 
glacial  period.  Pottery  fragments  and  flint  flakes  a  foot  below  the 
level  surface  prove  that  the  earth  was  dug  from  the  upper  surface  and 
thrown  to  the  lower.  *  *  *  At  Waynesville,  10  miles  up  the  river, 
there  are  a  number  of  clearly  defined  terraces  of  undoubted  artificial 
origin  along  the  hill-sides  bordering  on  Caesar's  Creek."  —  Ft.  A.,  98-9. 

AT   RED    BANK. 

"The  hill  at  Red  Bank  [Hamilton  county],  just  north  from  the 
railway  station,  *  *  *  ^g  terraced  on  its  eastern  and  southern  slopes. 
The  terraces  are  five  in  number."  —  Hov/e,  II,  23. 

These  terraces  are  plamly  artificial  and  of  an  age  antedating 
the  settlement  of  the  country  by  whites.  They  are  about  equi- 
distant, from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill. 

No  suggestion  can  be  made  as  to  the  purpose  of  such  remains. 
None  yet  offered  seems  to  have  any  bearing  on  the  question. 
They  are  not  for  "defense,"  because  there  is  nothing  to  be  defend- 
ed ;  nor  for  "molesting  enemies  in  canoes,"  because  they  are  too 
far  from  the  water ;  nor  for  gardens,  because  the  soil  on  them 


282  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

is  infertile  as  compared  with  that  close  by;  nor  for  ^'dwelling 
places,"  because  they  are  not  easy  of  access,  are  flooded  from 
the  hillside  above  at  every  rain,  and  any  house  built  on  them 
could  be  destroyed  by  rolling  rocks  down  on  it. 

C  —  EFFIGIES. 

In  several  states  are  mounds  presenting  the  rude  outline 
of  some  animal  or  other.  They  are  almost  invariably  of  earth, 
though  occasionally  one  is  found  of  stone.  By  far  the  greater 
number  is  found  in  the  Northwest,  especially  in  Wisconsin  and 
Iowa,  where  they  exist  by  thousands.  While  an  expert  zoologist 
would  prooably  hesitate  at  identifying  and  classifying  the  various 
forms,  other  persons,  with  greater  courage  and  a  more  delicate 
appreciation  of  similitudes,  have  had  no  difficulty  in  discovering 
the  human  figure  as  well  as  that  of  many  quadrupeds  and  birds. 
Some  can  even  name  the  particular  varieties  represented, 
although  the  resemblances  are,  as  a  rule,  no  more  striking  than 
may  be  observed  in  the  clouds  of  a  summer  sunset.  They  are 
frequently,  and  it  may  be  correctly,  called  emblematic  or  sym- 
bolic ;  perhaps  "effigy"  is  a  safer  term. 

Ohio  possesses  several  of  these  effigies,  only  two  of  which 
reallv  resemfcle  anything. 

A. THE  SERPENT. 

First,  and  above  all  others  for  its  size  and  striking  appear- 
ance, is  the  Serpent  Mound  of  Adams  county. 

In  figure  78  is  reproduced  the  engraving  of  the  survey  of  this 
work,  made  by  Squier  and  Davis.    They  claim  that 

"the  accompanying  plate  [is]  laid  down  from  an  accurate  survey." 
"  The  entire  length,  if  extended,  would  be  not  less  than  one  thousand  feet> 
*  *  *  The  neck  of  the  serpent  is  stretched  out  and  slightly  curved, 
and  its  mouth  is  opened  wide,  as  if  in  the  act  of  swallowing  or  ejecting 
an  oval  figure,  which  rests  partially  within  the  distended  jaws.  *  *  * 
The  point  of  the  hill,  within  which  this  egg-shaped  figure  rests,  seems 
to  have  been  artificially  cut  to  conform  to  its  outline,  leaving  a  smoooth 
platform  ten  feet  wide,  and  somewhat  inclining  inwards  all  around  it. 
The  section  ab  will  illustrate  this  feature."  —  S.  &  D.,  96. 

But  an  inspection  of  the  section  ab  will  show  at  once  that 
it  does  not  illustrate  anything  of  the  kind ;  and,  further,  the 
section  ab  is  quite  incorrect  in  so  far  as  it  purports  to  present 
a  section  of  the  extreme  point  of  the  ridge.    This,  like  any  other 


The  Serpent  Mound. 


283 


Squier  and  Davis's 


Figure  78. 

Figure  of  the  Serpent  Mound. 


narrow  ridge,  is  highest  along  the  middle  line,  or  very  near  it, 
and  slopes  in  both  directions.  Ground  with  a  contour  such  as 
that  represented  would  soon  have  a  trench  washed  through  the 


center. 


284  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

While  the  statement  iii  regard  to  the  length  is  true  enough, 
"an  accurate  survey"  should  present  a  closer  guess  than  one  that 
is  fully  one-fourth  less  than  the  correct  number ;  for  the  efQgy  is 
somewhat  more  than  1,300  feet  long  from  end  to  end. 

In  the  Century  Magazine  for  April,  1890,  Professor  Putnam 
gives  an  excellent  description  of  the  Serpent  Mound,  with  a  full 
account  of  his  explorations  there.  A  sketch  which  accompanies 
the  article  is  reproduced  as  figure  79. 

Professor  Putnam  says,  in  part: — 

"  The  graceful  curves  throughout  the  whole  length  of  this  singular 
effigy  give  it  a  strange,  life-like  appearance ;  as  if  a  huge  serpent,  slowly- 
uncoiling  itself  and  creeping  silently  and  stealthily  along  the  crest  of 
the  hill,  was  about  to  seize  the  ovaj  in  its  extended  jaws.  *  *  *  Will 
it  be  forcing  the  fact  to  argue  *  *  *  that  in  the  oval  embankment 
with  its  central  pile  of  burnt  stones  in  combination  with  the  serpent,  we 
have  the  three  symbols  everywhere  regarded  in  the  old  world  as  emblems 
of  those  primitive  faiths?  Here  we  find  the  linga-in-yoni  of  India,  or 
the  reciprocal  principles  of  nature  guarded  by  the  serpent ;  or  life,  power, 
knowledge,  and  eternity.  Moreover,  its  position,  east  and  west,  indi- 
cates the  nourishing  source  of  fertility — the  great  sun-god,  whose  first 
rays  fall  upon  the  altar  of  stones  in  the  center  of  the  oval.  So  that 
here  we  have  associated  the  several  symbols  which  in  Asia  would  be 
accepted  without  question  as  showing  the  place  to  be  a  phallo-solar 
shrine  combined  with  the  serpent  faith." 

It  is  not  east  and  west ;  and  if  it  were  the  middle  of  the  body 
is  considerably  higher  than  the  oval  enclosure  so  that  the  latter 
could  not  receive  ''the  first  rays." 

"  Its  very  position  on  the  high  cliff  terminating  in  the  rough  over- 
hanging rocks,  washed  by  the  spring  torrents  and  near  the  three  forks  of 
the  river,  is  to  be  considered  when  comparisons  are  made." 

''Spring  torrents"  will  wash  anything  they  can  reach ;  there 
are  not  three  forks  unless  small  ravines  are  so  designated,  in 
which  case  a  score  might  as  well  be  cited  as  three;  and  it  is  a 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  apply  the  name  "river"  to  a  little 
creek  whose  bed  is  dry  with  every  drought. 

"  This  combination  of  natural  features  probably  could  not  be  found 
again  in  any  part  of  the  great  route  along  which  the  people  must  have 
journeyed  from  the  Mexican  Gulf." 

Except  as  to  the  "head"  formed  by  the  projecting  point  of 
the  cliff,  to  which  Professor  Putnam  makes  no  allusion,  all  the 
topographic  features  about  the  Serpent  can  be  practicallv  dupli- 


The  Serpent  Mound. 


285 


cated  at  various  places  within  a  few  miles.  If  it  is  intended  to 
say  that  exact  duplications  of  all  its  features  are  to  be  looked  for, 
it  is  a  safe  proposition  to  assert  that  such  can  not  be  found.  No 
two   places   in  a  broken   country   can  have  precisely   the   same 


Sketch  map  of 
SeRPeNT  MOUNO  PARK 
AOAMS  COUNTY,  OHIO, 


Figure  79. 
Vicinity   of  the   Serpent   Mound. 


appearance.  Besides,  are  such  remains  as  this  to  be  found  in 
Mexico?  None  are  reported.  Even  if  they  should  exist  in  Mex- 
ico, why  are  none  of  the  kind  to  be  found  in  the  vast  intervening 
territory?  Are  we  to  suppose  the  builders,  if  accustomed  to  the 
manner  of  worship  indicated,  would  travel  for  months  in  order 
to  find  in  the  peculiar  topography  of  Brush  Creek  a  proper  site 
for  giving  tangible  or  visible  expression  of  their  symbolism? 


286 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


"  Is  all  this  to  be  taken  as  mere  coincidence  in  the  development  of 
faith  in  America  and  the  old  world?  There  seems  to  be  too  much  here 
to  admit  of  such  a  theory;  and  when  other  facts,  in  other  lines,  point 
in  the  same  direction,  it  is  playing  false  with  our  reason  to  be  too 
skeptical." 

He  makes  comparison  with  a  mound  somewhat  similar  in 
construction  in  Scotland,  and  says : — 

"  Is  there  not  something  more  than  mere  coincidence  in  the  resem- 
blances between  the  Loch  Nell  and  the  Ohio  serpent,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  topography  of  their  respective  sections?      Each  has  the  head  pointing 


^A^^)! 


i:.'  iiMi'ii.i  '',1  '"-'1111  ,'i'-,  •,  ,'.\'>ii ' 


Figure  80. 
McLean's    Figure    of    the    Serpent    Mound. 

west,  and  each  terminates  with  a  circular  enclosure  containing  an  altar, 
from  which,  looking  along  the  most  prominent  portion  of  the  serpent, 
the  rising  sun  may  be  seen." 

The  Scotland  work  seems,  from  an  illustration,  to  be  on  the 
shore  of  a  mountain  lake,  and  amid  very  different  scenic  sur- 
roundings. 

For  another  view  as  to  the  significance  of  such  similarities, 
see  a  citation  from  Fergusson,  on  page  39. 

McLean  made  a  thorough  examination  of  the  Great  Serpent, 
and  gives  a  drawing  which  is  reproduced  here  as  figure  80  ( Amer. 
Antiq.,  Jan'y.  1885,  p.  46).  He  has  evolved  a  most  singular 
theory. 

"  Thirty  feet  from  the  point  of  the  rock  is  the  end  of  the  nose  of 
the  frog.       The  frog  is  in  the  act  of  leaping;   the  hind  legs  stretched 


The  Serpent  Mound.  287 

"backward,  the  fore  legs  outward  and  forward,  the  body  drawn  up  at  the 
back,  and  the  head  depressed.  *  *  *  The  apparent  height  is  perhaps 
three  and  one-half  feet.  The  head  is  fifteen  feet  long  by  twenty  broad. 
It  is  considerably  destroyed.  The  length  of  the  body  is  forty-six  feet. 
The  right  foreleg  extends  down  the  slope.  For  eleven  feet  it  is  bold. 
The  left  foreleg  has  been  destroyed  by  denudation,  except  for  a  distance 
of  five  or  six  feet.  The  hind  legs  extend  backwards  fifty  feet.  Between 
the  two  hind  legs,  and  removed  a  distance  of  seventeen  feet,  the  egg- 
shaped  wall  is  inserted.  This  wall  is  about  two  and  a  half  feet  high, 
with  no  outlet,  and  the  bank  seventeen  feet  across  at  the  base.  This 
wall  or  egg  is  oblong,  the  length  one  hundred  and  thirteen  feet,  and  the 
greatest  breadth  from  bank  to  bank  fifty  feet.  The  interior  is  hollow. 
In  the  center  is  a  low  mound  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  It 
has  been  disturbed.  A  hole  in  the  center  reveals  burnt  stone.  The 
opposite  end  from  the  frog  extends  into  the  mouth  of  the  serpent  effigy. 
From  the  top  of  the  bank  of  the  egg  to  the  same  forming  the  mouth  of 
the  serpent  is  twenty-four  feet.  Calculating  from  the  extreme  point  of 
the  jaws  the  egg  extends  into  the  serpent's  mouth  a  distance  of  sixteen 
feet.  *  *  *  The  entire  length  of  the  whole  series,  from  the  point 
of  the  frog's  nose  to  the  end  of  the  serpent's  tail,  is  thirteen  hundred 
and  thirty-one  feet." 

Various  other  measurements  are  given,  not  necessary  to 
reproduce  here. 

"  The  whole  series  apparently  represents  the  following :  A  serpent 
is  on  the  mainland,  resting  in  a  coil,  hid  by  a  slight  depression,  and 
protected  by  declivities  at  two  points  of  the  compass.  While  in  this 
position  it  beholds  a  frog  sitting  near  the  point  of  land  beyond.  The 
serpent  unfolds  itself,  glides  along  the  edge  of  the  mainland  until  it 
reaches  the  tongue  or  spur,  drops  its  head  into  the  declivity,  and  just 
as  it  reaches  the  highest  point  beyond,  strikes  at  the  frog.  But  the 
wily  batrachian  becomes  alarmed,  leaps  in  time  and  emits  an  egg,  which 
in  turn  is  injected  into  the  mouth  of  the  serpent."  —  McLean,  Serpent. 

It  is  a  physiological  fact,  of  such  common  knowledge  as  to 
have  become  almost  proverbial,  that  certain  muscles  respond  with 
vigor  and  promptitude  to  the  influence  of  sudden  or  extreme 
fright.  There  is  also  a  property  of  matter,  known  in  physics  as 
inertia,  owing  to  which  a  substance  may  fall  directly  downward 
when  its  support  is  precipitately  removed.  But  it  is  difficult  to 
picture  in  the  mind  any  combination  of  circumstances  which 
would  constrain  a  frog  (presumably  of  the  gentler  sex)  to  move 
with  such  electric  celerity  as  to  jump  from  around  an  egg  nearly 
twice  as  long  as  itself  and  with  a  corresponding  breadth.  The 
imagination  balks. 


288  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  man  who  had  them  tame  the  mastodon  finds  in  the 
Serpent  Mound  evidence  that  the  Mound  Builders  beHeved  in 
immortality  and  eternal  damnation. 

"  I  have  no  confidence  in  the  theory  that  a  people  so  highly  developed 
as  the  Mound  Builders  have  shown  themselves  to  be  by  their  great  works 
so  artistically  made,  would  worship  one  of  the  lowest  and  most  depraved 
of  reptiles.  I  am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the  serpent  with  them 
was  symbolical  of  a  devil  or  infernal  spirit,  whose  sparkling  eyes  would 
point  to  the  slumbering  fires  within  which  would  engulf  them  in  everlast- 
ing pain  and  destruction,  and  that  this  great  effigy  was  built  with  open 
mouth  ready  to  devour  its  prey,  to  warn  their  fellow  men  to  avoid  the 
fatal  snares  of  their  hated  enemy."  —  Larkin,  163. 

According  to  the  newspapers,  a  preacher  in  Adams  county 
finds  even  a  deeper  significance  in  the  ''Serpent."  He  thinks  the 
Garden  of  Eden  was  located  in  this  vicinity,  and  that  when  Adam 
and  Eve  were  banished  (probably  to  the  Sunfish  Hills,  as  there 
is  no  other  place  in  Ohio  where  a  man  would  have  to  v/ork  so 
hard  to  make  a  living),  the  Almighty  himself  erected  this  sem- 
blance of  Satan,  carrying  in  his  mouth  the  apple  which  caused  all 
the  trouble,  as  a  memento  of  the  occurrence. 

The  most  scientific  description  and  convincing  explanation 
ever  given  in  regard  to  this  remarkable  effigy,  is  that  by  Holmes. 

"When  almost  to  the  brink  of  the  cliff,  we  reach  the  tail  of  the  ser- 
pent. Beginning  with  a  small  pit  at  the  terminal  point,  we  follow  the  un- 
folding coil  for  two  full  turns,  and  then  advance  along  the  body  which  in- 
creases gradually  in  height  and  width.  Upon  the  crest  of  the  ridge  we 
find  ourselves  at  the  beginning  of  three  great  double  folds.  Following 
these  we  come  to  a  point  where  the  body  straightens  out  along  the  ridge. 
Beyond  this  we  reach  the  curious  enlargement  with  its  triangular  and  oval 
enclosures.  Here  the  body  embankment  is  divided  into  two  parts,  which 
respectively  pass  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  enclosures.  At  the  sides  they 
descend  slightly  upon  the  slopes  of  the  ridge,  and  at  the  widest  part  of  the 
oval  are  somewhat  obscure  on  account  either  of  original  conformation  or 
of  subsequent  erosion.  Beyond  these  breaks  they  continue,  closing  en- 
tirely around  the  oval  embankment  within.  From  the  point  of  junction 
the  body  continues  for  a  short  distance,  perhaps  forty  feet,  and  then  ter- 
minates in  a  rounded  and  slightly  widened  point.  This  terminal  elevation 
is  entirely  omitted  by  Squier  and  Davis,  but  is  noticed  by  more  recent 
writers.  [  The  ]  auxiliary  ridges,  and  the  minor  appended  features  rec- 
ognized by  Squier  and  Davis  and  by  some  recent  visitors,  are  too  obscure 
to  he  identified  with  absolute  certainty,  and  I  consider  it  unsafe  to  in- 
troduce them  into  my  illustration ;  but  the  entire  body  of  the  serpent, 
and  the  peculiar  features  of  the  enlarged  portion  are  all  distinctly  tracea- 
ble, and  leave  no  doubt  in  the  mind  as  to  their  artificial  character.     The 


The  Serpent  Mound.  289 

topography  of  the  outer  end  of  the  promontory  is  somewhat  peculiar. 
The  extreme  point  is  about  thirty  feet  beyond  the  end  of  the  artificial  em- 
bankment, and  is  slightly  cleft  in  the  middle.  The  right-hand  portion  has 
no  exposure  of  rock,  and  descends  in  a  narrow,  rounded  spur.  The 
left-hand  point  is  a  naked  shelf  of  rock  a  little  to  the  left  of  the  direct  con- 
tinuation of  the  earthwork,  and  some  ten  feet  below  its  terminal  point. 
It  is  rounded  at  the  margin  and  perhaps  twenty-five  feet  wide. 
The  vertical  outline  is  curved,  and  presents  a  number  of  encircling 
ledges  marking  the  thickness  of  the  firmer  strata.  The  entire  exposure 
of  rock  at  the  point  is  perhaps  forty  feet  in  height.  Beneath  this,  talus 
extends  to  the  creek  bottom.  From  the  point,  the  exposure  of  rock  ex- 
tends back  along  [  down  ]  the  creek,  descending  slightly  and  soon  disap- 
pearing. Most  of  the  attempts  to  throw  light  upon  the  most  extraordinary 
features  of  the  work  have  been  made  through  the  medium  of  oriental  phil- 
osophy; but  it  manifestly  wrong  to  go  thus  out  of  our  way  to  seek 
a  symbolism  for  the  oval  enclosure,  as  do  Squier  and  Davis,  who  liken 
it  to  the  symbolic  egg  of  old-world  philosophy;  nor  need  we  make  a 
serious  effort  to  combat  the  idea  that  the  terminal  portion  is  a  frog,  as 
suggested  by  McLean.  It  would  not  seem  unreasonable  that  the  former 
feature  should  be  simply  the  eye  of  the  effigy;  but  we  have  another  ex- 
planation more  in  accord,  perhaps,  with  the  analogies  of  native  ceremonial 
art.  The  heart,  which  represents  the  life,  is  made  a  prominent  feature  in 
all  superstitious  delineations  of  living  creatures,  as  shown  by  a  multitude  of 
examples.  When  we  restore  the  head  and  neck  of  the  reptile,  omitted  by 
Squier  and  Davis  and  misinterpreted  by  others,  the  strange  oval  takes  the 
position  of  a  heart,  and  in  all  probability  marks  the  site  of  ceremonies 
that  must  have  been  connected  with  this  work.  This  leads  to  a  considera- 
tion of  a  proper  identification  of  the  head  of  the  effigy,  and  the  ref- 
lations of  the  natural  to  the  artificial  features  of  the  site.  From  the 
bank  of  the  creek  we  have  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  serpent  ridge. 
Having  the  idea  of  a  great  serpent  in  mind,  one  is  at  once  struck  with 
the  remarkable  contour  of  the  bluff,  and  especially  of  the  exposure  of 
rock,  which  readily  assumes  the  appearance  of  the  reptile  lifting  its  front 
from  the  bed  of  the  stream.  The  head  is  the  point  of  rock,  the  dark  lip- 
like edge  is  the  muzzle,  the  light-colored  under  side  is  the  white  neck^ 
the  caves  are  the  eyes,  and  the  projecting  masses  to  the  right  are  the  pro- 
truding coils  of  the  body.  The  varying  effects  of  light  must  greatly  in- 
crease the  vividness  of  the  impressions,  and  nothing  would  be  more  nat- 
ural than  that  the  Sylvan  prophet  should  at  once  regard  the  promotory  as 
a  great  manito.  His  people  would  be  led  to  regard  it  as  such,  and  this 
would  result  in  the  elaboration  of  the  form  of  the  reptile,  that  it  might  be 
more  real.  The  natural  and  the  artificial  features  must  all  have  been  re- 
lated to  one  and  the  same  conception.  The  point  of  naked  rock  was. 
probably  at  first  and  always  recognized  as  the  head  of  both  the  natural  and 
the  modified  body.  It  was  to  the  Indian  the  real  head  of  the  great  ser- 
pent manito."  —  Holmes  :   Serpent,  condensed. 

19 


290 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure    81. 
Holmes's    Figure    of    the    Serpent    Mound. 

A  sketch  by  Mr.  Holmes  is  reproduced  in  figure  8i  (Science, 
VIII,  204,  Dec.  31,  1886,  figure  i,  page  626). 

The  vein  of  speculation  seems  worked  out,  so  the  reader 
must  formulate  a  theory  for  himself  if  not  satisfied  with  those 
presented. 


The  Opossum. 


291 


The  promontory  upon  which  this  effigy  stands  was  pur- 
•chased  some  years  ago  with  money  furnished  by  a  number  of 
generous  ladies  in  Boston  who  had  become  interested  in  the  work 
through  the  efforts  of  Professor  Putnam.  It  was  put  in  thorough 
repair,  fences  built,  trees  planted,  and  defaced  portions  of  the 
artificial  work  restored  and  sodded  over.  The  title  deed  was  then 
transferred  to  the  Peabody  Museum,  of  Harvard  College.    Owing 


THE  OP06OUM 
Licking  County,  Oh/o. 


Figure  82. 

to  the  difficulty  of  supervision  from  such  a  distance,  the  property 
became  much  impaired.  Professor  Putnam  proposed  that  it  be 
turned  over  to  the  State;  and  upon  his  advice  and  suggestion, 
the  Trustees  of  Harvard,  in  1900,  deeded  the  entire  property  to 
the  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society,  in  fee,  with  no 
other  condition  than  the  very  reasonable  one  that  the  effigy  be 
kept  unimpaired  and  the  adjacent  grounds  preserved  as  a  park. 


B. THE    OPOSSUM. 


The  effigv  at  Granville  is  shown  in  figure  82  (S.  &  D., 
plate  XXXVI.  No.  2). 


292  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  It  is  known  in  the  vicinity  as  '  the  Alligator ' ;  *  *  the  figure 
bears  as  close  a  resemblance  to  a  lizard  as  any  other  reptile."  The  total 
length,  following  the  curve,  is  about  250  feet:  breadth  of  body,  40  feet; 
length  of  each  leg  36  feet ;  average  height  4  feet ;  elevation  at  shoulders  6 
feet.  "It  seems  more  than  possible  that  this  singular  effigy,  like  that  [of 
The  Cross,  near  Tarlton],  had  its  origin  in  the  superstition  of  its  makers. 
It  was  perhaps  the  high  place  where  sacrifices  were  made  on  stated  or 
extraordinary  occasions,  and  where  the  ancient  people  gathered  to  cele- 
brate the  rites  of  their  unknown  worship.  Its  position,  and  all  the  cir- 
cumstances attending  it,  certainly  favor  such  a  conclusion.  The  valley 
which  it  overlooks  aboimds  in  traces  of  the  remote  people,  and  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  the  centres  of  ancient  population.  *  *  Upon  the  in- 
ner side  of  the  effigy  is  an  elevated  circular  space,  covered  with  stones 
which  have  been  much  burned.  This  has  been  denominated  an  altar. 
Leading  from  it  to  the  top  of  the  effigy  is  a  graded  way  ten  feet  broad. — 
S.  &  D.,  98. 

The  name  "Alligator  Mound,"  does  not  seem  well  chosen. 
The  form,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  figure,  is  that  of  an  animal 
»  with  short  legs  and  a  short  neck ;  but  the  tail  instead  of  taper- 
ing is  of  nearly  uniform  diameter  and  has  a  pronounced  coil 
at  the  end,  in  both  of  which  features  it  differs  decidedly  from 
any  saurian.  While  individuals  may  have  seen  the  alligator 
on  some  trip  to  the  South,  it  is  altogether  improbable  that  the 
animal  was  familiar  to  the  Mound  Builders  as  a  race.  Their 
knowledge  of  the  species  would  be  of  so  limited  a  nature  that 
they  would  scarcely  desire  to  commemorate  it  in  this  manner. 
The  figure  recembles  an  opossum  much  more  than  it  does  an  alli- 
gator. The  propensity  of  uncivilized  people  to  hold  in  awe  or  at 
least  in  superstitious  regard  anything  unusual  or  mysterious, 
would  lead  them  to  consider  the  marsupium  an  organ  worthy  of 
religious  recognition.  Hence  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  hum- 
ble animal  would  be  honored  in  their  ceremonies. 

The  opinion  sometimes  advanced  that  it  is  a  clan  emblem  or 
totem,  is  improbable.  If  the  i\Iound  Builders  were  divided  into 
clans,  it  is  not  likely  that  only  one — or  two — would  thus  leave 
their  mark. 

C. THE     NEWARK     FIGURE. 

Concerning  the  mound  in  enclosure  E,  at  Newark,  shown  in 
figure  83,  Squier  and  Davis  say : — 

"  In  the  center  is  a  mound  of  singular  shape.  It  much  resembles  some 
of  the  '  animal-shaped  mounds '  of  Wisconsin,  and  was  probably  de- 
signed to  represent  a  bird  with  expanded  wings.     It  can  hardly  be  called 


The  Newark  Effigy. 


293 


a  mound  but  is  rather  a  group  of  four,  so  arranged  and  connected  as  to 
constitute  an  unbroken  outline.  Its  greatest  length  is  155  feet."  —  S. 
&  D.,  68. 

"  It  is  common  to  find  two  or  three,  sometimes  four  or  five  sepulchral 
mounds  in  a  group.  In  such  cases  it  is  always  to  be  remarked  that  one 
of  the  group  is  much  the  largest,  twice  or  three  times  the  dimensions  of 
any  of  the  others;  and  that  the  smaller  ones  of  various  sizes,  are  arranged 


Figure    83. 

around  the  base,  generally  joining  it,  thus  evincing  a  designed  dependence 
and  intimate  relation  between  them."  [This  is  shown  in  their  plan,  re- 
produced here  as  figure  84  (S.  &  D.,  170,  fig.  57)]. 

"  No.  1  is  situated  six  miles  below  Hamilton  in  Butler  county.     The 
largest  is  twenty-seven  feet  high. 


:^=^3-r^rC.^ 


Figure   84. 
Groups   of    Conjoined   Mounds. 

"  No.  2  is  a  mile  north  of  Chillicothe,  and  is  numbered  4  in  figure 
[23].  The  small  one  indicated  by  the  letter  ;  was  excavated,  and  was 
found  to  contain  the  skeleton  of  a  girl  enveloped  in  bark.  The  largest 
of  the  group  is  about  thirty  feet  high. 

"  No.  3  is  situated  in  Pike  county,  near  the  end  of  the  embankmen' 
from  the  Graded  Way."  —  S.  &  D.,  170,  condensed. 

Group  No.  2  is  the  one  to  which  reference  is  made  on  page 
354  to  page  357. 

It  may  have  been  the  intention,  never  carried  to  completion, 
to  construct  a  group  of  this  kind  at  Newark.     Four  conjoined 


294 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


mounds  is  all  that  can  be  made  of  the  figure ;  and  yet  it  has  been 
compared  to  a  flying  eagle ;  a  bird,  without  specifying  what  kind ; 
a  bird's  foot ;  a  bow  with  an  arrow  across  it ;  a  man  on  his  back 
with  outstretched  arms;  a  honey  bee;  a  man  swimming  withoilt 
legs;  a  large  temple  with  a  tower  in  front  and  wings  at  each 
side;  and  possibly  other  things.  The  outline  of  the  mounds  is 
not  so  definite  as  the  figure  indicates. 


ANCIENT  WORK 
^c/'ofo  Coi//7/y.  0/7/0 


QCAl.£ 


Figure   85. 


D. THE    TAPIR. 

Five  miles  north  of  Portsmouth,  on  the  west  side  of  the  river, 
is  the  enclosure  shown  in  figure  85  (S.  &  D.,  82,  plate  XXIX). 

It  is  480  feet  long,  by  407  feet  wide,  but  not  a  true  ellipse.  A 
mound  within  "is  of  the  form  and  relative  size  indicated  in  the  plan,, 
and  is  composed  of  loose  broken  sandstone  and  earth,  based  upon  dis- 
located and  broken  sand  rock.  It  is  from  one  to  eight  feet  high,  being 
lowest  at  the  east  end  or  head,  and  at  the  projecting  points.  It  is 
probably  of  the  same  design  as  those  of  Wisconsin.  *  *  *  ]\Jq  expla- 
nation of  the  probable  design  of  this  work  will  be  attempted  here;  it 
is  impossible,  however,  to  disconnect  it  from  the  superstitions  of  the 
ancient     people.      *      *      *      Workmen     engaged     in     excavating     [for 


Works  of  Unknown  Meaning.  295 

the  canal]    found  large  quantities  of  mica,   in  sheets,   in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  this  enclosure."  —  S.  &  D.,  82. 

Some  writers  have  managed  to  find  in  the  mound  mentioned 
a  resemblance  to  the  South  American  tapir ;  proving  thereby,  of 
course,  that  the  makers  were  familiar  with  that  animal. 

E. THE   BEAR. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  ravine  from  the  western  termi- 
nation of  the  parallels  extending  westward  from  the  lower  group 
of  the  Portsmouth  Works,  on  the  Kentucky  side,  is  an  effigy 
which  apparently  is  intended  to  represent  a  bear.  It  is  one  hun- 
dred and  five  feet  in  length,  and  much  resembles  some  of  the 
Wisconsin  figures. —  Lewis,  Fort,  375. 

D.  —  ANOMALOUS    STRUCTURES. 

Among  the  works  of  the  Mound  Builders  are  some  whose 
purpose  not  even  a  vivid  imagination  can  fathom.  No  rational 
explanation  is  ever  attempted  by  any  one  who  describes  them. 

Three  of  these  will  be  illustrated,  merely  to  show  that  the 
psychological  workings  of  an  unknown  people  are  not  to  be 
measured  by  our  own  standards.  The  builders  of  such  figures 
probably  knew  what  they  were  about ;  but  we  cannot  even  guess 
at  their  thoughts  or  intentions. 


The  structure  known  as  "The  Cross,"  shown  in  figure  86  (S. 
&  D.,  98,  plate  XXXVI,  No.  i), 

is  near  Tarlton,  Pickaway  county,  on  the  point  of  a  narrow  ridge 
overlooking  Salt  Creek.  It  measures  ninety  feet  across,  each  way,  and  is 
about  three  feet  high.  There  is  a  slight  ditch  all  around  its  margin, 
and  a  circular  depression  in  the  center  twenty  feet  in  diameter  and 
twenty  inches  deep.  Several  small  mounds,  including  one  partly  of 
stone,  are  close  by ;  and  some  large  ones  on  top  of  the  hill,  farther  back. 
—  S.  &  D.,  98. 

^  ^  :\'  t-  -^ 

The  singular  structure  shown  in  figure  87  (S.  &  D.,  85,  plate 
XXX,  No.  4) 

is  on  the  little  stream  of  Black  Run,  two  miles  south  of  the  fort  on 
Spruce  Hill,  opposite  Bourneville.  It  is  composed  entirely  of  stones 
which  are  not  laid  up,  but  are  rudely  piled  together.       The  main  work 


296 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


^      PicAaway  Counly,  Oh/'o, 


foo  ^eer 


Figure 


Figure    87. 


Works  of  Unknown  Meaning.  297 

is  an  ellipse  170  by  250  feet.  There  is  an  opening  "fifty  feet  wide  on 
the  south,  where  the  walls  curve  outwards  and  lap  back  upon  them- 
selves for  the  space  of  sixty  feet."  Five  walls  start  "within  ten  feet 
of  the  unbroken  line  of  the  elliptical  enclosure,  and  extend  thence  north- 
ward, slightly  converging,  for  the  distance  of  one  hundred  feet.  The 
lines  of  the  outer  walls,  if  prolonged,  would  intersect  each  other  at  the 
distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  These  walls  are  twenty  feet 
broad  at  the  ends  nearest  the  enclosure  and  ten  feet  apart.  They  dimm- 
ish gradually  as  they  recede,  to  ten  feet  at  their  outer  extremities.  *  *  * 
The  stones  [of  the  main  work]  cover  a  space  fifteen  or  twenty  feet 
broad,  and  are  irregularly  heaped  together  to  the  height  of  perhaps 
three  feet.  *  *  *  The  purposes  of  this  strange  work  are  entirely 
inexplicable;  its  small  size  precludes  the  idea  of  a  defensive  origin. 
It  is  the  only  structure  of  the  kind  which  has  yet  been  discovered  in 
the  valleys,  and  it  is  totally  unlike  those  found  on  the  hills."  —  S.  &  D.,  87. 

Peet  finds  in  this  work,  two  intertwined  serpents,  the  five 
straight  walls  being  the  tails,  and  the  curve  at  either  side  of 
the  entrance  the  heads.  Later,  he  concludes  the  walls  are  rattles. 
—  Amer.  Antiq.,  July,  i886,  and  July,  1890. 

Peet  possesses  a  peculiar  faculty  for  seeing  snakes.  But  he 
is  justified  in  exploiting  this  discovery;  in  fact,  he  should  give 
it  more  prominence  than  he  has  done,  for  there  is  probably  not 
another  work  in  the  world  where  two  snakes  are  represented  as 
the  proud  possessors  of  five  tails — or  five  sets  of  rattles,  whichever 
it  is. 


The  'Trefoil"  near  Bainbridge  is  presented  in  figure  88  (S. 
&  D.,  91,  plate  XXXII,  No.  5). 

"  It  can,  of  course,  be  regarded  only  as  connected  with  the  super- 
stitions-of  the  builders,  for  the  reason  that  it  could  offer  no  good  purpose 
for  protection,  nor  subserve  any  of  the  useful  purposes  for  which  enclos- 
ures are  required,  such  as  the  Hmits  of  fields  and  possessions,  or  the 
boundaries  of  villages."  —  S.  &  D.,  91. 

It  serves  as  another  example  of  the  carelessness  with  which 
these  men  did  their  work.  The  pike  in  reality  runs  almost  due 
west;  the  mounds  are  all  north  of  the  pike;  there  is  no  second 
terrace  on  that  side  where  it  is  represented;  and  the  Maysville 
pike  turns  off  at  some  distance  beyond  the  limit  of  the  map.  In 
addition  to  which  there  is  not  room  on  the  terrace  for  a  work  of 
the  size  they  figure.  Still,  they  evidently*  found  something  out  of 
the  ordinary,  of  which  no  part  has  escaped  the  destructive  influ- 
ence of  plow  and  harrow. 


298 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


/INC/ENT  WOffK 
f^oss  Coanfy^  Ohio, 


SCO  /^e^r 


Figure    88. 
***** 

From  the  illustrations  and  descriptions  in  the  preceding 
pages,  the  reader  may  gain  a  clear  idea  of  the  appearance,  situa- 
tion, and  construction  of  Ohio  enclosures.  All  the  so-called 
"sacred"  or  geometrical  structures  are  figured,  they  being  re- 
garded as  the  most  important.  Of  other  classes  only  a  few  are 
selected  from  each  for  presentation;  enough,  however,  to  show 
the  characteristics  of  all.  To  present  fully  the  interesting  archae- 
ological details  of  every  county  in  the  State,  would  require  many 
large  volumes ;  a  task  beyond  the  power  of  an  individual  or  the 
resources  of  a  society  or  institution. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  MOUNDS  OF  OHIO. 

Numbers.  Size.  Form.  Classification.  Stratification.  Altars.  Position 
of  Skeletons.  Property  Buried  with  the  Dead.  Origin  of  the  Cus- 
tom.   How  Mounds  Were  Built. 

THE  total  number  of  mounds  in  Ohio  has  been  estimated  at 
ten  thousand.  This  is  probably  under  rather  than  over  the 
correct  figure ;  for  while  they  are  almost  unknown  in  the. 
northwestern  counties  and  are  comparatively  scarce  in  some  parts 
of  the  rugged  hill  lands  of  the  south  and  southeast  and  along  the 
main  water  sheds,  there  is  scarcely  a  township  in  any  other  part 
where  they  are  not  found.  In  the  neighborhood  of  every  stream 
in  the  southern  half  of  the  State,  except  some  of  those  flowing 
through  rough  or  swampy  country,  the  surface  is  so  dotted  with 
them  that  signals  could  be  transmitted  from  one  to  another  for  a 
hundred  miles  or  more.  There  is  scarcely  a  point  along  the  Scioto 
below  Circleville,  or  on  either  Miami  in  the  lower  half  of  its 
course,  or  in  the  valley  of  any  tributary  to  these  streams,  where 
one  may  not  be  withm  a  few  minutes'  ride  of  some  permanent 
evidence  of  aboriginal  habitation.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Cuy- 
ahoga and  some  other  rivers  belonging  to  the  Lake  Erie  basin.. 
On  the  summits  of  steep  hills;  in  bottom  lands  subject  to  over- 
flow ;  on  every  terrace  bordering  a  stream ;  on  plateaus  and  up- 
lands ;  wherever  there  is  cultivable  or  naturally  drained  land,  a. 
good  point  of  observation,  an  ample  supply  of  water,  a  conven- 
ient topography  for  trails — the  Mound  Builder  has  left  his  mark. 
Even  in  places  where  it  would  seem  a  nomad  would  not  care  to- 
go,  except  as  led  by  the  excitement  or  necessities  of  the  chase^ 
and  then  for  as  brief  a  time  as  possible,  such  evidence  is  not 
lacking  of  prehistoric  residence,  or,  at  least,  sojourning. 

In  magnitude  they  vary  from  one  reduced  by  farming  opera- 
tions until  it  is  scarcely  perceptible  and  probably  never  more  than 
three  feet  in  height  or  twenty  feet  across,  to  those  fully  thirty 

(299) 


300  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

feet  in  elevation  with  a  base  diameter  of  from  one  hundred  and 
fifty  to  two  hundred  feet.  Such  mounds  as  that  at  Miamisburg, 
with  an  altitude  of  sixty-eight  feet,  or  at  Grave  creek,  West  Vir- 
ginia, two  feet  higher,  are  so  far  beyond  the  ordinary  that  they 
must  be  excluded  in  giving  figures  that  shall  fairly  represent 
the  usual  dimensions. 

The  majority  of  them  are  composed  entirely  of  earth,  though 
there  are  many  altogether  of  stone  and  occasionally  one  occurs 
in  which  both  materials  are  used.  As  a  rule  the  earth  mounds 
resemble  in  shape  a  medium  between  a  low  cone,  and  a  flat 
dome  or  segment  of  a  sphere.  Some  have  an  elliptical  outline; 
others  are  flat-topped.  All  these  usually  come  under  the  designa- 
tion of  "conical  mounds,"  which  is,  perhaps,  as  accurate  as  any 
single  descriptive  word  could  be,  though  none  are  or  ever  have 
been  exactly  conical ;  earth  could  not  be  built  into  that  form,  nor, 
if  it  could,  would  it  retain  its  shape  through  the  first  storm. 

The  base  diameter  of  a  conical  mound,  undisturbed  by  cul- 
tivation, is  very  seldom  less  than  four  times  and  from  that  to 
ten  times  its  vertical  height.  As  this  would  not  look  impressive 
in  a  picture,  they  are  almost  invariably  represented  with  the 
slope  much  exaggerated.  The  Marietta  mound  is  especially 
unfortunate  in  this  respect,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  cut  of  it 
reproduced  from  Nadaillac  (see  figure  89).  Some  illustrations 
are  even  worse  than  this ;  the  artist  never  feels  it  his  duty  to 
explain  how  one  of  the  builders  could  climb  up  the  sides  with  a 
load  of  earth.  The  actual  slope  is  shown  in  figure  90,  from  a 
photograph.  While  inaccuracies  are  to  be  expected  in  a  volume 
written  for  the  ''general  public"  by  an  author  ignorant  of  his 
subject,  it  is  somewhat  depressing  to  find  similar  errors  com- 
mitted by  men  who  have  opportunities  for  personal  examination 
of  the  objects  which  they  portray.  As  an  illustration,  Plate  XI, 
of  the  ''Ohio  Centennial  Report,"  represents  three  "Ancient 
Mounds."  It  shows  how  little  reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  ordi- 
nary descriptions  and  observations.  The  first,  reproduced  as 
figure  91,  outlines  a  mound  as  it  really  is,  so  far  as  proportions  are 
concerned ;  the  second,  figure  92,  is  as  it  looks  to  a  casual  observer ; 
while  the  third,  figure  93,  is  an  impossible  "restoration,"  where 
stones  less  than  a  foot  in  diameter  are  made,  according  to  the 
accompanying  "scale,"  to  appear  as  large  as  haycocks.  Even  books 
which  profess  to  record  only  the  careful  observations  of  trained 


Real  and  Imaginary  Forms  of  Mounds.  301 


Figure   89  —  Sketch    of   the   Marietta    Mound;    from    Nadaillac. 


Figure  90  —  The  Marietta  Mound;    from  a  photograph. 


802 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


^^-jmms'  _  >^'^^^_s^^ 


TWO   MILES  CAST  OF  MIAMISBURC    MONTGOMERY   CO. OHIO. 
i>h>to  Jertht  H'uttmReam  an4}ki1him  Oh„t!i,tcr,cal  Scru/y  fy  J.  SUUr.  1872. 

Figure    91. 


.-f^zf^- 


TIPPETS    MOUNO    LICKING. CO. OHIO. 
iv<r  KJ4M  ^  a0i».m««s.  ^  B;**^  8« ft..'  J^"" 
^Ar/'.A-  hy  D.  W^nck  J860. 

Figure   92. 


mm 


MOUN0  or  LOOSE  STONES  1+  MILES  S  E  OF  JACKTOWN  ilCKINC  CO.O. 
r«<»<M^«ee.ijii.'eixvefju6i;otiio.  ^rcftk.Rtthrtd  hf  Ck<u.'Whittlur^  1938^. 

Figure  93. 


Classification  of  Mounds.  303 

scientists  sometimes  practically  endorse  errors  which  they  are 
written  to  confute.  In  Plate  IX,  page  242,  of  the  Twelfth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  the  ''Knapp  Mounds"  in 
Pulaski  county,  and  the  "De  Soto  Mounds"  in  Jefferson  county, 
Arkansas,  are  represented  as  having  slopes  of  sixty  degrees;  a 
pitch  impossible  to  attain  with  loose  earth.  In  this  plate,  the 
largest  of  the  former  group  is  represented  as  of  the  ordinary  con- 
ical type.  In  the  following  plate,  however,  it  is  figured  as 
elliptical,  with  a  "platform"  at  the  southern  end;  and  the  text, 
page  244,  says  it  "is  forty-eight  feet  high,  280  feet  long  from 
north  to  south,  and  150  feet  wide.  The  nearly  level  summit  is 
about  50  feet  wide  by  90  long.  The  slopes  are  about  35  or  40 
degrees."  If  these  measurements  are  correct  the  slopes  would 
have  to  be  nearly  45  degrees  on  the  longer  sides  and  about  30 
degrees  at  the  ends.  There  are  numerous  minor  errors  of  this 
character  in  that  volume  of  the  Reports,  but  none  of  them  are 
serious.  This  is  the  more  remarkable,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  former  chief  of  the  division  of  mound  exploration  made  it 
a  rule  to  engage  only  men  without  experience  or  knowledge  in 
archaeological  work,  and  sent  them  into  the  field  without 
instructions  as  to  their  duties,  in  order  that  they  might  render 
reports  which  should  be,  as  he  expressed  it,  "unprejudiced  by  pre- 
conceived opinions."  Their  reports  were  edited  in  Washing- 
ton by  this  chief,  who,  himself,  was  without  practical  experience. 
Various  schemes  have  been  proposed  for  the  classification  of 
mounds  into  definite  groups  and  systems;  nearly  all  of  them 
being  based  upon  method  of  construction,  or  upon  certain  details 
of  internal  structure,  as  well  as  upon  outward  form.  All  are  open 
to  the  same  objection,  namely,  lack  of  uniformity  in  those  to  which 
any  particular  name  is  applied,  and  their  close  resemblance  in 
some  respects  to  many  which  are  arbitrarily  placed  in  another 
division.  There  is  so  much  similarity  in  the  arrangement  and 
contents  of  some  amid  totally  different  surroundings,  and  con- 
versely such  unlikeness  in  the  structure  of  others  which  consti- 
tute a  single  group,  that  a  definite  name  expressive  of  one  certain 
purpose,  applied  to  a  mound  on  account  of  its  location  or  out- 
ward appearance,  is  merely  conjectural,  may  find  as  many  excep- 
tions as  examples,  and  so  is  very  apt  to  be  misleading.  It  is  nat- 
ural to  employ  the  term  "burial  mound"  for  one  in  which  human 
remains  are  found;  or  to  designate  as  "altar  mound"  one  that 


304  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

contains  a  number  of  articles,  deposited  apparently  as  a  votive 
offering;  or  to  use  the  name  ''sacrificial"  when  evidences  of  cre- 
mation are  present.  But,  even  if  a  mound  was  begun  with  a 
definite  aim  in  view,  plans  may  have  altered  as  the  work  pro- 
gressed. Additional  interments  are  often  made  in  a  tumulus 
intended  at  first  to  cover  only  a  single  corpse;  two  mounds,  of 
any  character,  may  be  gradually  enlarged  until  the  bases  overlap ; 
occasionally  a  number  of  small  mounds,  each  of  which  would 
fall  into  a  single  ''class,"  are  built  in  a  compact  group  and  after- 
wards covered  with  one  huge  pile  of  earth.  This  last  was 
especially  noticeable  at  the  Hopewell  group. 

Squier  and  Davis  make  the  following  classification  of 
mounds : — 

"  1st.  Altar  mounds,  which  occur  either  within,  or  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  enclosures;  which  are  stratified,  and  contain  altars  of 
burned  clay  or  stone ;  and  which  were  places  of  sacrifice. 

"  2nd.  Mounds  of  sepulture,  which  stand  isolated  or  in  groups 
more  or  less  remote  from  the  enclosures;  which  are  not  stratified;  which 
contain  human  remains ;  and  which  were  the  burial  places  and  monu- 
ments of  the  dead. 

"  3rd.  Temple  mounds,  which  occur  most  usually  within,  but 
sometimes  without  the  walls  of  the  enclosures ;  which  possess  great 
regularity  of  form ;  which  contain  neither  altars  nor  human  remains ; 
and  which  were  'High  Places'  for  the  performance  of  religious  rites 
and  ceremonies,  the  sites  of  structures,  or  in  some  way  connected  with 
the  superstitions  of  the  builders. 

"  4th.  Anomalous  mounds,  including  mounds  of  observation  and 
such  as  were  applied  to  a  double  purpose,  or  of  which  the  design 
and  objects  are  not  apparent.  This  division  includes  all  which  do  not 
clearly  fall  within  the  preceding  three  classes."  —  S.  &  D.,  142. 

ALTAR    MOUNDS. 

In  their  descriptions  of  mounds  containing  altars,  Squier 
and  Davis  state  that 

"  The  fact  of  stratification  in  [altar]  mounds,  is  one  ui  great  interest 
and  importance.  *  *  *  ^^he  stratification,  so  far  as  observed,  is  not 
horizontal,  but  always  conforms  to  the  convex  outline  of  the  mound." 

"  The  circumstance  of  stratification,  exhibiting  as  it  does  an  extra- 
ordinary care  and  attention,  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  result  from  any 
but  superstitious  notions.  It  certainly  has  no  exact  analogy  in  any  of 
the  monuments  of  the  globe,  of  which  we  possess  a  knowledge,  and  its 
significance  is  beyond  rational  conjecture." 

"  The  characteristics  of  this  class  of  mounds  will  be  best  explained 
by  reference  to  the  accompanying  illustrations.       It  should  be  remarked,. 


Stratification. 


305 


however,  that  no  two  are  alike  in  all  their  details."  The  mound  in  ques- 
tion (which  is  the  first  one  they  opened  at  "Mound  City")  was  seven 
feet  high  with  a  base  fifty-five  feet  in  diameter.  A  shaft  five  feet  square 
was  sunk  from  its  apex  to  the  bottom.  For  a  foot  from  the  top  there 
was  "a  layer  of  coarse  gravel  and  pebbles,  which  appeared  to  have  been 
taken  from  •  deep  pits  surrounding  the  enclosure,  or  from  the  bank  of 
the  river."  The  remainder  of  the  mound  was  of  earth,  except  for  three 
layers  of  sand,  each  about  an  inch  thick."  —  S.  &  D.,  143,  160,  and  144. 

One  of  these  illustrations  is  here  given  as  figure  94  (S.  &  D., 
144,  figure  29).  The  lines  of  curvature  as  marked  in  the  section 
are  purely  imaginary;  in  the  narrow  shaft  sunk  from  the  top 
only  a  limited  portion  of  the  deposits  about  the  center  of  the 


Scale 
horizon  fal  .15  feet , 
Vertical  6ft  iolnrh 


O  Sc  Ji    i  C 


7ft. 


l^fSiiftt  and  rourte ^tfrrei 


Skeleton 
Straiu.m.  of  Sanri 

Enrth 
if^Sanel 

\Earth 
vOalrinect  ione» 

Utar- 


Figure    94. 
Theoretical   Section  of  a  Mound. 


mound  could  be  seen,  and  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  these 
deposits  were  uniform  in  thickness  and  followed  the  curve  of 
the  top  instead  of  the  plane  of  the  base.    The  same  assumption  is. 
made  in  every  mound  where  a  section  is  represented. 
20 


306  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

There  is  often  a  rude  stratification  in  the  mounds  of  the 
Scioto  valley,  but  it  is  not  of  the  kind  described  by  these  authors ; 
neither  is  it  due  to  building  in  the  manner  which  they  supposed. 
The  existing  strata  overlap;  they  are  not  continuous;  they  are 
as  often  horizontal  as  inclined;  they  are  more  generally  sloping 
in  a  somewhat  irregular  plane  than  curved;  and  they  are  found, 
when  they  appear  at  all,  indifferently  in  the  various  sorts  of 
mounds  which  are  introduced  in  the  above  misleading  classifi- 
cation. In  not  a  single  case  where  they  have  been  described  or 
illustrated  did  these  explorers  cut  a  trench  across  the  mound, 
which  is  the  only  manner  of  ascertaining  the  disposition  of  the 
different  deposits.  A  succession  of  shafts  such  as '  they  made 
would  not  be  satisfactory  in  determining  the  matter,  for  while 
similar  materials  might  be  found  at  different  levels,  these  could 
as  well  run  out  within  a  few  feet  on  their  own  level  as  they  could 
rise  uniformly  to  the  plane  of  the  one  above.  The  above  remarks 
apply  to  those  mounds,  by  far  the  most  numerous,  where  the  labor 
of  construction  was  tolerably  continuous  from  inception  to 
completion.  The  entire  space  covered  by  the  mound  was  worked 
oyer  at  one  time  by  different  parties,  bringing  earth  from  differ- 
ent places.  Each  would  throw  his  load  where  it  suited  him. 
There  was  no  such  order  and  regularity  as  the  authors  indi- 
cate ;  one  is  led  to  infer  from  their  cuts  that  a  dome-shaped  mass 
was.  intentionally  and  carefully  carried  to  a  certain  height,  cov- 
ered with  a  thin  layer  of  gravel  and  sand,  then  another  stratum 
of  earth  built  up,  and  so  the  work  would  continue  until  the  tumu- 
lus was  finished.  Had  they  thought  to  trench  the  mounds,  or  to 
make  their  shaft  much  larger,  they  would  have  found  that  no  one 
of  these  layers  which  they  figure  was  of  any  great  extent  and 
that  none  of  them  had  the  regularity  of  curve  which  they  repre- 
sent. This  statement  is  made  with  confidence  of  its  correct- 
ness, for  not  only  has  the  present  writer  carefully  noted  the 
arrangement  of  a  large  number  of  mounds  in  the  Scioto  valley 
and  elsewhere ;  but  has  also  trenched  across  a  few  of  the  iden- 
tical mounds  called  ''stratified"  by  these  pioneer  explorers ;  and 
in  no  instance  has  any  such  feature  been  discovered.  The 
nearest  approach  to  it  was  near  Frankfort  where 

one  mound  was  "distinctly  stratified"  though  the  strata  were  uneven, 
and  another  was  what  is  usually  classed  as  a  "stratified  mound,"  being 
composed  of  practically  horizontal  layers,  though  these  varied  consider- 


Altars.  307 

ably    in    extent    and    thickness    and    none    reached    entirely    across    the. 
structure.  —  Moorehead,  118  and  134. 

In  very  few  cases  has  even  this  rude  accidental  stratification 
been  found ;  the  entire  mound,  from  base  to  summit  seldom  shows 
any  lines  of  separation  in  the  material  composing  it  except  the 
lens-shaped  profile  of  each  basket  load  as  represented  in  figure  95 
(S.  &  D.,  144,  figure  30). 

There  are  some  mounds  in  which  a  curved  stratum  extends 
without  a  break  over  the  portions  beneath.  In  such  cases,  it 
will  be  seen  that  different  periods  of  construction  are  involved. 
A  mound  was  built  up,  sometimes  to  a  height  of  ten  or  twelve 
feet,  though  usually  much  less.  -The  building  was  then  discontin- 
ued for  a  time,  occasionally  a  number  of  years  as  proven  by  the 
remains  of  timber  which  grew  on  its  surface,  until  the  earth 
deposited  had  settled  into  a  compact  mass.  Then  the  structure 
was  carried  higher,  with  the  same  soil  sometimes,  but  usually 
with  earth  of  a  different  character  from  that  used  first.  Such 
structures,  however,  are  not  what  is  understood  by  the  term 
""stratified  mounds."' 

ALTARS. 

"  The  altars,  or  basins,  found  in  these  mounds  are  almost  invariably 
of  burned  clay,  though  a  few  of  stone  have  been  discovered.  They  are 
symmetrical,  but  not  of  uniform  size  or  shape.  Some  are  round,  others 
elliptical,  and  others  square  or  parallelograms.  Some  are  small,  meas- 
uring barely  two  feet  across,  while  others  are  fifty  feet  long  by  twelve 
or  fifteen  feet  wide.       The  usual  dimensions  are  from  five  to  eight  feet. 


Figure    95. 
Outlines  of   Separate   Loads  of   Earth   in   a   Mound. 

All  appear  to  have  been  modelled  of  fine  clay  brought  to  the  spot  from 
a  distance,  and  they  rest  upon  the  original  surface  of  the  earth.  In 
a  few  instances,  a  layer  or  small  elevation  of  sand  has  been  laid  down, 
upon  which  the  altar  was  formed.  The  height  of  the  altars,  neverthe- 
less, seldom  exceeds  a  foot  or  twenty  inches  above  the  adjacent  level. 
The  clay  of  which  they  are  composed  is  usually  burned  hard,  sometimes 
to  the  depth  of  ten,  fifteen,  or  even  twenty  inches.  This  is  hardly  to 
be  explained  by  any  degree  or  continuance  of  heat,  though  it  is  manifest 
that  in  some  cases  the  heat  was  intense.       On  the  other  hand,  a  number 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  these  altars  have  been  noticed,  which  are  very  slightly  burned;  and 
such,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  are  destitute  of  remains.  —  S.  &  D.,  143, 
condensed. 

It  is  a  common  belief  that  a  fire  kindled  on  the  surface  will 
not  harden  or  discolor  the  earth  for  more  than  a  few  inches 
below;  and  this  may  be  trtie  of  any  ordinary  degree  of  heat. 
Under  old  lime-kilns,  and  perhaps  at  other  places  where  a 
great  heat  has  been  maintained  for  a  long  time,  such  evidences 
may  be  found  at  a  depth  of  several  feet.  At  Leavenworth, 
Indiana,  some  years  since,  a  kiln  was  undermined  by  the  river, 
leaving  a  vertical  exposure  across  its  center.  The  earth  was  red 
as  a  brick  to  the  depth  of  six  feet ;  it  could  not  be  seen  lower 
on  account  of  the  mud  piled  against  it  by  the  current. 

To  the  above  description  of  the  so-called  altars  it  may  be 
added  that  they  seem  to  be  found  only  in  mounds  connected 
with  large  enclosures.  They  are  masses  of  clay  from  six  to 
eight  feet  across — seldom  larger — usually  irregular  in  outline, 
and  up  to  a  foot  in  thickness.  The  first  step  in  their  construction 
was  to  clear  off  a  sufficient  space  which  was  sometimes  burned  or 
pounded  until  quite  hard.  On  this,  the  clay  was  spread  out, 
kneaded  or  puddled  to  a  uniform  consistency,  the  upper  surface 
made  smooth  and  flat,  and  a  basin  excavated  in  it.  The  latter 
is  always  rectangular  with  rounded  corners  and  a  level  bottom; 
it  varies  from  three  to  five  feet  in  length  with  a  width  one-half 
to  three-fourths  the  length,  and  a  depth  of  four  to  eight  inches. 
Very  few  fall  beyond  these  limits  in  either  direction.  The  mar- 
gin of  the  clay  was  either  left  as  it  was  deposited,  or  cut  away 
its  entire  thickness  to  form  a  rim  of  uniform  width  around  the 
basin.  A  fire  was  then  kept  burning  on  it  until  all  the  clay 
remaining  was  as  hard  as  brick.  Sometimes  all  the  ashes  and 
charcoal  resulting  from  this  fire  were  carefully  removed ;  in  this 
event,  the  altar  is  usually  filled  with  clean,  v/hite  ashes,  or  with 
fine  dark  earth,  possibly  decayed  organic  substances.  The  name 
"altar"  is  derived  from  the  relics  of  various  descriptions,  occas- 
ionally including  burned  human  bones,  gratuitously  assumed  to 
be  sacrificial  offerings,  frequently  found  on  them ;  though  quite 
often  they  contain  no  objects  of  any  kind. 

The  altars  in  three  mounds  at  "Mound  City,"  though  much  burned, 
had  no  remains  in  them ;  even  the  ashes  had  been  removed.  Some  of 
the  smallest  mounds  had  no  altars.  'In  place  thereof,  on  the  original 
level  of  the  earth,  was  found  a  quantity,  in  no  case  exceeding  the  amount 


Altars.  309 

of  one  skeleton,  of  burned  human  bones  in  small  fragments.  That  they 
were  not  burned  on  the  spot  is  evident  from  the  absence  of  all  traces  of 
fire,  beyond  those  furnished  by  the  bones  themselves.  They  appear  to 
have  been  collected  iro.A  the  pyre,  wherever  it  was  erected,  and  carefully 
■deposited  in  a  small  heap,  and  then  covered  over." 

"  That  the  stratified  mounds  are  not  burial  places  seems  sufficiently 
well  established  by  the  fact  that  the  greater  number  have  no  traces  of 
human  remains  upon  or  around  the  altars.  *  *  *  The  suggestion 
that  the  various  relics  found  upon  these  altars  were  the  personal  effects 
of  deceased  chiefs  or  priests,  thus  deposited  in  accordance  with  the  cus- 
tom among  rude  people,  of  consigning  the  property  of  the  dead  to  the 
tomb  with  them,  is  controverted  by  the  facts  that  the  deposits  are 
homogeneous." 

''Some  of  the  altar  or  sacrificial  mounds,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
the  deposits  within  them  almost  entirely  made  up  of  finished  arrow  and 
spear  points,  intermixed  with  masses  of  the  unmanufactured  material." 
—  S.  &  D.,  159  and  213. 

Human  remains  are  not  uncommon  on  the  altars ;  the 
•authors  themselves  found  them  in  various  places,  as  they  record 
in  their  volume.  If,  as  they  assert,  the  relics  also  found  were  not 
individual  property,  to  whom  could  they  belong?  It  is  true 
that  one  altar  may  contain  only  pipes,  on  another  nothing  but 
spear-heads  is  found,  in  a  third  galena  alone  occurs,  etc.  Are 
we  to  suppose  that  each  person  in  a  village  contributes  his  one 
or  two  specimens?  Or  does  the  whole  lot  belong  to  a  trader 
or  a  manufacturer? 

"Had  the  objects  deposited  upon  the  'altars'  in  the  Ohio  mounds 
been  of  a  sacrificial  nature,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  would  have  been 
the  best  of  their  kind ;  imperfect  and  unfinished  pipes  would  not  have 
been  worthy  offerings  to  a  divinity."  —  Stevens,  350. 

Neither  is  it  true  that  only  one  certain  kind  of  article  is 
found  upon  an  altar.  On  the  contrary,  some  of  them  have 
yielded  an  astonishing  amount  and  variety  of  specimens ;  as 
will  appear  in  the  accounts  of  mound  exploration. 

"  That  all  altars  were  not  covered  by  mounds  is  certain.  *  *  * 
Nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  *  *  -*  some  were  left  exposed  by 
the  builders,  and  afterwards  hidden  by  natural  accumulations,  to  be  again 
•exposed"  —  by  the  plow  and  freshet  in  later  time.  —  S.  &  D.,  160. 

Evidently  they  saw  an  ''  altar "  in  every  spot  of  burned 
earth. 

So  far  as  the  principle  of  "  sacrifice  "  or  "  burnt  ofifering  " 
is   concerned,    the    numerous    wrought    articles    may    have    l^een 


310  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

devoted  to  the  flames  with  some  such  idea  in  view;  but  there- 
has  not  as  yet  been  discovered  any  real  evidence  that  human 
sacrifice  was  practiced  by  the^  Mound  Builders.  Cremation; 
torture ;  indifference  to  the  disposition  of  corpses ; — will 
account  for  all  the  burned  and  charred  human  bones  exhumed. 

"  The  terms  'altars'  and  'mounds  of  sacrifice'  imply  that  human 
sacrifices  were  offered.  Human  sacrifices  were  unknown  in  New  Mexico,, 
and,  without  better  evidence  than  these  miscalled  altars  afford,  they  cannot 
be  fastened  upon  the  Mound-Builders.  Moreover,  these  clay  beds  were 
not  adapted  to  the  barbarous  work.  Wherever  human  sacrifices  are 
known  to  have  occurred  among  the  American  aborigines,  the  place  was, 
an  elevated  mound  platform  and  the  raised  altar  or  sacrificial  stone  stood 
before  the  idol  in  whose  worship  the  rites  were  performed.  There  is 
neither  a  temple  nor  an  idol ;  but  a  hollow  bed  of  clay  covered  by  a 
mound  raised  in  honor  over  the  ashes  of  a  deceased  chief,  for  assuredly 
such  a  mound  would  not  have  been  raised  over  the  ashes  of  a  victim. 
Indians  never  exchanged  prisoners  of  war.  Adoption  or  burning  at  the 
stake  was  the  alternative  of  capture ;  but  no  mound  was  ever  raised 
over  the  burned  remains.  Another  use  suggests  itself  for  this  artificial 
basin  more  in  accordance  with  Indian  usages  and  customs,  namely,  that 
cremation  of  the  body  of  a  deceased  chief  was  performed  upon  it,  after 
which  the  mound  was  raised  over  his  ashes."  —  Morgan,  217,  condensed. 

TEMPLE   MOUNDS. 

"  These  mounds  are  distinguished  by  their  great  regularity  of  form 
and  general  large  dimensions.  They  occur  usually  within,  but  some- 
times without,  the  walls  of  enclosures.  They  consist  chiefly  of  pyramidal 
structures,  truncated,  and  generally  have  graded  avenues  to  the  top. 
But  whatever  their  form,  *  *  *  tj-^gy  have  invariably  flat  or  level 
tops,  of  greater  or  less  area.  *  *  *  Mounds  of  this  class  are  not 
numerous  in  Ohio,  and  it  is  believed  are  only  found  at  Marietta,  Newark, 
Portsmouth,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Chillicothe.  *  *  *  They  cover 
no  remains,  and  seem  obviously  designed  as  the  sites  of  temples  or  of 
other  structures  which  have  passed  away,  or  as  'high  places'  for  the 
performance  of  certain  ceremonies.  The  likeness  which  they  bear  to 
the  Teocallis  of  Mexico  is  striking  and  suggestive  of  their  probable 
purpose."  —  S.  &.  D.,  173. 

One  is  shown  at  Newark,  small  and  without  a  grade-way — 
it  is  doubtful  whether  this  will  fall  within  their  classification ;: 
one  above  the  mouth  of  Tygart,  opposite  Portsmouth,  which 
may  be  only  a  natural  knoll,  dressed  to  its  present  form;  two 
at  Cedar  Banks,  only  one  of  which  is  graded ;  and  four  at 
Marietta,  three  of  them  graded. 


Temple  and  Lookout  Mounds.  311 

As  none  of  them  have  been  explored  except  in  a  very  inade- 
quate and  perfunctory  manner,  the  assertion  that  ''  they  cover 
no  remains  "  is  not  warranted  by  our  present  knowledge. 

The  rather  common  practice  among  Southern  Indians  of 
using  such  mounds  as  sites  for  buildings  has  suggested  the  idea 
that  those  found  here  were  utilized  in  the  same  way.  While 
this  may  have  been  the  case  with  those  standing  on  low  or  level 
ground,  in  connection  with  additional  evidences  of  occupation, 
as  at  Marietta  and  in  two  or  three  other  localities,  there  are 
some  whose  situation  is  contrary  to  such  a  supposition.  For 
example,  the  mound  a  mile  south  of  the  Glenford  Fort,  which 
is  about  1 8  feet  high  and  covers  nearly  two  acres,  is  on  the  top 
of  a  hill  which  slopes  away  in  every  direction.  The  soil  in  the 
vicinity  is  poor,  the  surface  is  a  succession  of  hills  and  ravines, 
and  it  is  not  credible  that  an  aboriginal  settlement  would  have 
been  located  at  this  place ;  nor  is  it  more  probable  that  the  people 
who  occupied  the  fort  would  have  established  a  temple  or  build- 
ing of  any  other  sort,  of  a  size  which  is  implied  by  the  base 
of  this  mound,  at  such  a  distance  from  any  suitable  location  for 
a  town. 

Even  though  a  few  of  them  were  obviously  intended  to 
serve  as  sites  for  buildings  of  some  description,  it  does  not 
follow  that  all,  or  many,  of  these  buildings  were  "  temples." 
It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  superstition  was  probably  dominant 
in  the  mind  of  the  Mound  Builder;  but  to  assume  that  every- 
thing which  we  do  not  understand  among  their  remains  must 
be  owing  to  this  trait,  simply  because  we  cannot  account  for  it 
otherwise,  is  certainly  illogical. 

The  sparseness  of  such  mounds  and  their  occurrence  under 
the  same  conditions  as  commoner  forms,  are  inconsistent  with 
the  theory  which  has  been  advanced  more  than  once  that  they 
owe  their  origin  to  a  different  people  or  belong  to  a  different 
age;  their  erection  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  same  motives 
which  induced  the  building  of  mounds  and  other  works  amid 
which  they  stand,  the  entire  group  clearly  constituting  one  gen- 
eral system. 

Many  conical  mounds  are  also  truncated;  some  of  these 
have  been  opened,  and  their  contents  and  methods  of  construc- 
tion found  to  be  practically  of  the  same  character  as  shown  in 


312  '    Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

numerous  mounds  of  the  usual   form,   examined   in  the   same 
locaHties. 

LOOKOUT    MOUNDS. 

"  The  most  commanding  positions  on  the  hills  bordering  the  valleys 
of  the  West,  are  often  crowned  with  mounds,  suggesting  at  once  the  idea 
of  signal  or  alarm  posts.  Between  Chillicothe  and  Columbus,  not  far 
from  twenty  may  be  selected,  so  placed  in  respect  to  each  other  that  sig- 
nals of  fire  might  be  transmitted  in  a  few  minutes  along  the  whole  line. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  classification  of  any  portion  of  the  hill- 
mounds  as  places  of  observation,  is  not  sufficiently  well  authorized.  It 
seems  that  a  large  proportion  contain  human  remains,  undoubtedly  those 
of  the  mound-builders.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  ancient  people 
selected  prominent  and  elevated  positions  upon  which  to  build  large 
fires,  which  were  kept  burning  for  long  periods,  or  renewed  at  frequent 
intervals.  For  what  purpose  they  were  built,  whether  to  comunicate  in- 
telligence or  to  celebrate  some  religious  rite,  it  is  not  undertaken  to  say. 
The  traces  of  these  fires  are  only  observed  upon  the  brows  of  the  hills ; 
they  appear  to  have  been  built  generally  upon  heaps  of  stones,  which  are 
broken  up  and  sometimes  partially  vitrified  over  a  large  area  and  several 
feet  thick.  They  are  vulgarly  supposed  to  be  the  remains  of  'furnaces'  ". 
—  S.  &  D.,  181-3,  condensed. 

This  conservative  and  reasonable  statement  is  too  mild  for 
some  later  authors.     Short  says : — 

"  On  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,   on  all   their  tributaries,   are  mounds 
which  served  as  lookouts.     These  were  always  placed  in  positions  to  com- 
mand extensive  views.     *     *     The  great  mound  at   Miamisburg     *     * 
may  have  served  the  double  purpose  of  a  signal  station  and  the  base  of  a 
small  edifice  devoted  to  astronomical  or  religious  purposes."  —  Short,  52. 

This  phrase  "  may  have  served "  furnishes  a  convenient 
loop-hole  when  testimony  is  sought  concerning  the  grounds  for 
belief  that  leads  to  a  statement  which  is  apparently  definite  and 
is  so  regarded  by  readers.  The  author  might,  with  equal  pro- 
priety, have  said  it  "  may  have  served  "  as  a  toboggan  slide, 
or  in  the  nature  of  a  corner-stone. 

McLean  does  not  palter  thus ;  he  boldly  announces 
"  They  were  expelled  from  the  territory  by  force.  On  the  hills 
they  erected  mounds  for  posts  of  observation,  and  when  a  war  party  came 
down  upon  them,  the  fires  were  kindled,  and  the  people  thereby  warned 
sought  their  shelters  of  refuge.  The  invaders  came  from  the  north.  The 
belt  of  country  between  the  northern  and  southern  works  of  Ohio,  prob- 
ably remained  a  dense  forest."  —  McLean,  144,  condensed. 

But  the  position  of  the  so-called  "  Signal  Mounds  ''  or 
''  Mounds    of    Observation "    is    opposed    to    their    implied    use 


Burial  Mounds.  313 

ratfier  than  confirmatory  of  it.  When  a  point  already  overlooks 
the  surrounding  country  for  many  miles,  no  possible  advantage 
could  be  gained  by  raising  a  signal  fire  a  few  feet  higher,  or 
elevating  a  sentry  to  a  slight  extent  when  his  horizon  was  already 
far  beyond  the  limit  at  which  he  could  discern  any  moving 
object.  Head  lands  and  high  peaks  have  always  been  favorite 
burial  spots  with  Indians,  even  till  the  present  generation ;  and 
human  remains  are  of  such  common  occurrence  in  mounds  thus 
situated  as  to  warrant  the  assertion  that  all  were  intended  as 
tumuli. 

Ashes  are  found  in  as  great  quantities  in  many  mounds  on 
low  ground  as  in  those  on  hill-tops.  A  pile  of  damp  leaves  and 
trash  v/hich  would  make  a  column  of  dense  smoke  and  leave 
few  traces  of  their  use,,  would  serve  better  for  signal  purposes 
than  any  amount  of  wood  which  would  leave  quantities  of  ashes. 
The  mound  on  Mount  Logan,  opposite  Chillicothe,  so  often 
mentioned  as  composed  nearly  altogether  of  ashes  from  signal 
fires,  was  found  on  examination  to  contain  only  a  relatively  small 
amount,  being  mostly  of  earth,  and  containing  human  bones. 

Mounds  of  earth,  or  stone,  or  both,  are  found  on  hilltops 
along  every  considerable  stream  in  the  southern  half  of  the 
State,  where  these  border  any  fertile  bottoms,  as  well  as  less 
frequently  farther  north;  on  jutting  points,  back  from  the 
streams,  either  singly  or  in  groups ;  and  miles  away  from  any 
stream  larger  than  a  small  rivulet,  on  the  higher  hilltops  over- 
looking extensive  areas  of  broken  table  lands.  There  could  easily 
be  attributed  to  "  signal  purposes  "  not  merely  "  twenty  between 
Chillicothe  and  Columbus,"  but  hundreds  scattered  over  forty  or 
fifty  counties.  In  fact,  one  might  start  from  almost  any  point 
and  flash  signals  from  one  mound  to  another  in  almost  any  direc- 
tion for  an  indefinite  distance. 

SEPULCHRAL    MOUNDS. 

"  Mounds  of  this  class  are  very  numerous.  They  are  generally  of 
considerable  size,  varying  from  six  to  eighty  feet  in  height,  but  having 
an  average  altitude  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  or  twenty-five  feet.  *  * 
These  mounds  invariably  cover  a  skeleton  (in  very  rare  instances  more 
than  one),  which  at  the  time  of  its  interment  was  enveloped  in  bark 
or  coarse  matting,  or  enclosed  in  a  rude  sarcophagus  of  timber."  — 
S.  &  D.,  161. 


814  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Of  the  great  number  of  mounds  excavated  with  more  or 
less  care  and  exactness  by  farmers,  collectors,  scientists,  and 
others,  the  results  of  such  explorations  as  have  been  reported 
establish  the  fact  that  more  than  nine-tenths  contained  human 
skeletons;  and  it  is  a  fair  assumption  that  this  proportion  is 
true  of  all.  Nor  is  the  absence  of  such  remains  to  be  considered 
indicative,  unless  otherwise  substantiated,  that  they  were  con- 
structed for  some  other  purpose  than  as  bunal  places;  for  con- 
ditions are  frequent  in  which,  although  the  character  and  dispo- 
sition of  relics  found  are  such  as  invariably  mark  those  deposited 
with  a  corpse,  all  traces  of  bone  have  disappeared. 

As'a  rule,  not  many  bodies  were  covered  by  a  single  mound; 
sometimes  there  is  only  one,  very  seldom  more  than  twenty. 
From  two  to  ten  seems  the  usual  number.  There  are  some  in 
which  a  great  quantity  of  human  bones  is  found,  mingled  in 
confusion;  but  these  are  plainly  the  remains  of  a  communal 
burial  in  which  the  bodies,  or  bones,  of  all  who  had  died  within 
several  years  were  collected  and  deposited  at  one  time.  This 
custom  was  common  among  Indians  in  various  portions  of  the 
eastern  United  States,  though  few  indications  of  it  are  found 
in  Ohio  mounds.  The  mistaken  statement  that  "  in  very  rare 
instances  more  than  one  "  skeleton  occurs  in  a  mound  is  a  con- 
sequence of  the  plan  of  sinking  a  shaft  directly  from  the  apex. 
It  is  not  often  that  more  than  one  skeleton  would  be  found  thus ; 
but  others  may  lie  in  different  parts  of  the  same  tumulus.  The 
size  of  the  pile  has  no  relation  to  the  number  of  interments. 

Ordinarily  all  the  bodies  were  laid  on  the  surface  and  the 
mound  raised  to  its  full  height  over  them;  but  it  is  not  unusual 
to  find  remains  at  various  levels.  The  head  may  be  toward  any 
point  of  the  compass;  in  many  mounds  no  two  skeletons  are 
parallel  or  arranged  in  just  the  same  manner. 

"  It  should  be  remarked  *  *  that  the  postion  of  the  mound 
skeletons,  in  respect  to  the  east  or  any  other  point  of  the  compass,  is  never 
fixed.  They  are  nearly  always  found  disposed  at  length  with  the  arms 
adjusted  at  the  sides.  None  have  ever  been  discovered  in  a  sitting  pos- 
ture, except  among  the  recent  deposits ;  and,  even  among  these,  no  uni- 
formity exists."  —  S.  &  D.,  172. 

Their  experience  in  this  agrees  with  that  of  all  later  inves- 
tigators; and  yet  there  is  a  widespread  belief  that  most  bodies 
are  buried  "  sitting  up."  This  error  is  due  in  large  part  to  the 
following  allegation,  which  has  been  frequently  quoted : — 


Burial  Mounds.  315 

"  From  Patagonia  to  Canada,  and  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  equally 
in  the  civilized  and  uncivilized  tribes,  a  peculiar  mode  of  placing  the  body 
in  sepulture  has  been  practiced  from  immemorial  time.  This  peculiarity, 
consists  in  the  sitting  posture."  —  Morton,  244. 

Occasionally  with  the  Mound  Builders,  and  very  often  with 
the  later  Indians,  in  order  to  save  labor,  a  grave  was  dug  barely 
large  enough  to  contain  a  body  when  it  was  laid  in  on  the  side, 
with  knees  drawn  up  to  the  chin.  If  the  skull,  in  such  cases, 
is  intact  when  the  grave  is  opened,  it  lies  higher  than  the  other 
bones  and  sometimes  upon  them ;  thus  creating  the  impression 
that  the  body  was  placed  in  the  grave-pit  in  a  sitting  or  squatting 
attitude,  and  when  decay  ensued  the  bones  fell  to  the  bottom. 
At  any  rate,  I  have  never  found  a  skeleton  which  had  been  placed 
in  a  "  sitting  posture  " ;   nor  has  any  of  my  co-workers. 

It  is  a  prevalent  notion  that  the  occurrence  in  mounds  or 
cemeteries  of  skeletons  pertaining  to  persons  of  various  ages 
"  indicates  a  promiscuous  massacre."  Although  marks  of  a 
violent  death,  such  as  a  fractured  skull,  broken  limb,  or  bone  in 
which  an  arrow  or  spear-head  is  imbedded,  are  sometimes  appar- 
ent in  skeletons  from  mounds,  there  is  no  indication  that  any 
tumulus  was  ever  erected  to  cOver  only  the  remains  of  those 
who  were  slain  in  battle.  On  the  contrary,  where  the  remains 
of  several  persons  are  present,  all  periods  of  life  are  often  repre- 
sented, from  the  infant  of  a  few  days  to  the  man  or  woman  of 
extreme  age.  Sometimes  the  arrangement  of  the  skeletons 
denotes  successive  burials,  all  finally  covered  by  one  large 
tumulus;  sometimes  the  bones  of  one  or  more  skeletons  are  out 
of  their  proper  place,  as  though  carried  from  elsewhere  and 
re-interred.  Usually,  however,  the  inhumation  of  all  skeletons 
near  each  other  appears  to  have  taken  place  at  one  time. 

Squier  and  Davis  formulated  their  observations  concerning 
the  art  products  of  the  Mound  Builders,  as  taken  from  the 
tumuli,  in  a  few  words. 

"  The  mounds  are  the  principal  depositories  of  ancient  art,  and  in 
them  we  must  seek  for  the  only  authentic  remains  of  the  builders.*'  — 
S.  &  D.,  186. 

"  With  the  skeletons  in  these  mounds  are  found  various  remains  of 
art,  comprising  ornaments,  utensils,  and  weapons."  —  S.  &  D.,  161. 

"  It  is  a  singular  fact,  however,  that  few  weapons  of  stone  or  other 
materials  are  discovered  in  the  sepulchral  mounds ;  most  of  the  remains 


316  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

found  with  the  skeletons  are  such  evidently  as  were  deemed  ornamental, 
or  recognized  as  badges  of  distinction."  —  S.  &  D.,  213. 

"  As  a  general  rule,  to  which  there  are  few  exceptions,  the  only  au- 
thentic and  undoubted  remains  of  the  mound-builders  are  found  directly 
beneath  the  apex  of  the  mound,  on  a  level  with  the  original  surface  of 
the  earth."  —  S.  &  D.,  146. 

They  are  so  convinced  of  the  correctness  of  the  last  gener- 
alization, or  so  impressed  with  its  importance,  that  they  repeat  it 
in  practically  the  same  words. 

"  As  a  general  rule,  *  *  whatever  occurs  in  the  mounds,  whether 
they  be  sepulchral  or  sacrificial  in  their  purposes,  is  deposited  immediately 
beneath  the  apex  and  on  a  level  with  the  circumjacent  plain."  —  S.  & 
D.,  163. 

Yet  nothing  can  be  further  from  fact.  It  is  often  the 
case  that  no  worked  specimens  of  any  kind  are  at  the  center, 
even  when  a  skeleton  lies  there;  while  at  different  places,  some- 
times almost  at  the  original  margin  of  the  structure,  valuable 
finds  are  made.  The  error  here  arises  from  the  same  cause  as 
that  regarding  the  ''single  skeleton,"  namely,  that  the  authors 
very  rarely  looked  anywhere  except  at  the  center.  In  the  few 
instances  where  they  did  search  elsewhere,  their  quest  was  not 
always  unrewarded.  It  will  be  seen,  in  the  subsequent  pages, 
that  about  the  least  interesting  portion  of  a  mound  is  not  infre- 
quently ''immediately  beneath  the  apex." 

Another  very  common  error  is  thus  expressed  by  Moore- 
head  : — 

"  The  aborigines  always  buried  their  dead  with  great  ceremony,  and 
they  invariably  deposited  with  the  body  objects  of  stone,  bone,  or  clay,  as 
tokens  of  respect,  and  from  religious  feelings."  —  Ft.  A.,  41. 

What  may  have  led  him  to  make  such  an  unwarranted  state- 
ment, is  a  mystery ;  for  in  different  parts  of  the  same  volume,  as 
well  as  in  other  of  his  publications,  he  describes  scores  of  burials 
made  apparently  with  haste  and  carelessness ;  and  many  more 
in  which  no  relics  or  remains  of  any  character  were  associated 
with  the  skeletons. 

The  fact  in  regard  to  this  matter  is,  that  with  a  few  skeletons 
of  Mound  Builders  are  found  a  great  number  and  variety  of 
articles  which  were  presumably  the  personal  property  of  the 
deceased;  with  some  others,  objects  limited  in  number  and  of 
;small  value  from  the  standpoint  of  a  savage  are  associated.  But 


Objects  Placed  with  the  Dead.  317 

if  it  was  customary  in  all  cases  to  deposit  with  the  dead  his  per- 
sonal belongings,  these  must  have  been  largely  of  a  perishable 
nature;  for  a  majority  of  the  skeletons  in  mounds,  and  nearly 
all  those  in  cemetery  burials,  are  not  accompanied  by  relics  of  any 
description.  With  the  remainder,  as  a  general  rule,  are  only 
a  few  arrow-heads  or  beads,  a  pipe,  ornament,  or  tomahawk. 
Very  few  are  provided  with  a  considerable  number  of  articles. 
No  particular  system  seems  to  have  been  observed  in  arranging 
them.  Pipes  are  found  near  the  skull,  in  either  hand,  on  the 
breast,  or  at  the  feet;  clay  vessels  are  very  rare,  and  have  no 
fixed  place ;  weapons  of  war  or  the  chase,  or  articles  of  personal 
adornment,  may  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  grave.  True,  a 
considerable  degree  of  uniformity,  which  may  signify  tribal  rela- 
tionship, is  often  to  be  seen  in  different  sections,  in  the  position 
of  skeletons  and  the  arrangement  of  specimens  with  them ;  but 
this  may  be  accidental.  Such  coincidences  are  less  remarkable 
than  a  distinct  method  of  burial  would  be  for  each  of  the  many 
thousands  whose  remains  have  come  to  light  in  the  past  fifty  years. 
As  to  the  reasons  for  placing  food,  ornaments,  weapons,  and 
other  things  in  prehistoric  graves,  it  is  generally  considered  a 
satisfactory  explanation  to  say  that  the  custom  implies  belief 
in  a  future  life  where  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  will  have  need  of 
them,  or  that,  perhaps,  he  will  need  them  on  his  journey  thither. 
The  survivors, 

"  unable  to  imagine  a  future  altogether  different  from  the  present, 
or  a  world  quite  unlike  our  own,  showed  their  respect  and  affection  for 
the  dead,  by  burying  with  them  those  things  which  in  life  they  had  valued 
most."  —  Lubbock,   134. 

But  there  may  be  other  reasons  as  well.  The  savage  knows 
the  dead  man  may  remain  on  earth  an  indefinite  period  prior 
to  taking  up  his  journey  toward  the  Happy  Hunting  Grounds ; 
because  in  his  sleep  he  frequently  sees  ond  talks  with  him. 
There  may  be  present  need  for  food  and  weapons.  He  may  also 
be  able  to  take  the  ''souls"  of  these  articles  with  him  when  he 
finally  departs. 

"  The  care  with  which  the  dead  were  interred,  and  the  custom  of 
burying  implements  with  them,  have  been  regarded  by  some  archaeologists 
as  proving  the  existence  of  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  in 
a  material  existence  after  death.  But  it  is  far  from  being  constantly  the 
case,  that  the  dead  were  so  well  supplied  with  what  we  call  the  neces- 


318  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

saries  of  life;  indeed,  it  is  quite  the  exception  and  not  the  rule."  —  Lub- 
bock, 139. 

Or  those  who  are  left  may  fear  that  on  account  of  some 
grievance  or  unfriendly  feeling,  the  spirit  will  be  disposed  to 
work  them  an  injury;  and  this  method  of  propitiation  is  taken. 
There  may  be  a  feeling,  too,  that  whatever  property  a  person 
owns  belongs  to  him,  alive  or  dead,  and  no  one  else  has  any 
right  to  appropriate  it.  Or  the  personality  of  the  deceased  may 
attach  to  his  belongings  and  resent  their  use  by  another.  Again, 
if  property  is  buried  survivors  can  not  quarrel  over  its  possession. 
Finally  there  is  the  superstition  that  if  anyone  makes  use  of  small 
personal  possessions  after  the  death  of  the  original  owner,  some 
dire  misfortune  will  result. 

"  We  know  that  several  savage  tribes  have  a  superstitious  reluctance 
to  use  anything  which  has  belonged  to  a  dead  person."  —  Lubbock,  133. 

Such  reluctance  is  by  no  means  confined  to  savages.  It  may 
be  found  in  civilized  communities,  and  is  quite  strong  in  some 
localities,  among  our  own  people;  and  it  is  far  from  being 
restricted  to  the  ignorant  classes. 

Any  or  all  of  these  motives  may  have  had  their  influence; 
and  all  of  them  are  equally  set  at  naught  by  the  fact  that  much 
more  than  one-half  of  the  bodies  were  deposited  with  absolutely 
nothing  to  accompany  them. 

Possibly  we  may  gain  further  light  on  the  subject  by  inquir- 
ing into  the  origin  of  a  few  of  our  own  customs. 

Why  do  so  many  people  have  a  dread  of  ghosts?  Why 
will  they  refuse  to  go  into  a  cemetery  alone  after  night-fall ;  or 
why  do  they  whistle  loudly  when  compelled  to  pass  near  one? 
Why  will  a  man  refuse  to  sit  up  with  a  corpse  unless  he  can 
have  company;  or  why  will  he  break  his  neck  falling  down 
stairs  if  he  should  happen  unexpectedly  to  find  a  dead  man  on 
the  landing?  Why  do  we  bury  letters,  wedding  rings  and  sou- 
venirs with  their  possessors?  Why  do  we  carefully  bathe  and 
array  in  the  best  apparel  obtainable,  the  corpse  of  a  man  whom 
we  shunned  in  life  for  his  uncleanliness  ?  He  is  in  no  greater 
need  of  such  attention  now  than  he  was  before.  Why  do  we 
write  flattering  epitaphs  over  the  man  whom  we  abused  while  he 
was  living?  Why  do  we  erect  monuments  which  outlast  mem- 
ory?    Why  do  we  decorate  graves   year  after  year?     If  it  is 


How  Mounds  Were  Built.  '  319 

''ignorant  superstition,"  fit  only  to  provoke  a  smile  of  derision  or 
pity  from  superior  enlightenment,  that  induces  an  "Indian  squaw" 
to  place  on  her  baby's  grave  the  best  food  or  toys  possible  to  her 
poverty,  what  is  the  motive  leading  a  white  mother  to  plant  flow- 
ers on  the  tomb  of  her  little  daughter?  Are  we  doing  all  these 
things  because  we  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul?  Or  is 
it  because  we  think  that  the  beauty,  amiability,  intelligence,  and 
spirituality  we  admired  and  loved,  is  an  inseparable  part  of  that 
which  is  fastened  down  beneath  the  coflin  lid? 

In  the  case  of  the  savage,  as  of  his  civilized  brother,  dread 
of  death  and  the  things  pertaining  to  it,  has  its  foundation  in  the 
indefinite,  tmintelligible,  but  none  the  less  potent,  sense  of  mys- 
tery ;  of  something  beyond  his  comprehension ;  of  a  power  greater 
than  he  can  understand,  which  he  is  powerless  to  resist,  and 
which  may  overwhelm  him  at  any  moment.  He  gives  expression 
to  his  instinctive  feeling  in  the  way  which  he  thinks  will  be 
best  for  himself  and  for  his  departed  friend. 

HOW    MOUNDS    WERE    BUILT. 

The  manner  of  their  construction  was  long  a  puzzling  ques- 
tion; it  was  deemed  impossible  that  such  piles  of  earth  could 
be  made  without  the  aid  of  machinery  or  beasts  of  burden.  But 
there  has  never  been  found  the  slightest  evidence  of  the  use  of 
any  mechanical  appliance,  not  even  a  hand-barrow ;  nor  a  bone  of 
any  animal  susceptible  of  domestication,  which  had  sufficient 
strength  to  be  servicable  in  such  work.  On  the  other  hand,  scores 
of  mounds  of  various  sizes,  in  different  localities,  have  furnished 
proof  that  human  toil  alone  was  employed.  In  some  of  them, 
almost  the  whole  interior  is  made  up  of  small  lenticular  masses, 
from  a  peck  to  two  pecks  in  size,  each  of  which  marks  the  amount 
of  a  single  load,  carried  to  the  spot  in  a  basket  or  skin,  and 
flattened  out  by  the  weight  of  the  loads  deposited  above  it.  They 
are  not  apparent  in  all  mounds  for  the  reason  that  certain  con- 
ditions must  exist  at  the  time  the  earth  is  deposited,  in  order 
that  it  may  retain  this  form. 

Sometimes  the  material  of  which  a  mound  is  composed  is 
uniform  in  character ;  again  several  varieties  of  earth  may  appear 
in  the  space  of  a  few  cubic  yards.  Undue  importance  has  been 
attached  to  this.  It  is  urged  that  some  motive  or  other  led  to 
-a  selection  of  different  qualities  and  colors ;  that  possibly  a  definite 


320  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

meaning  was  intended,  a  hieroglyphic  sign  Is  concealed,  which 
being  deciphered  would  convey  some  kind  of  information  con- 
cerning the  builders.  But  various  sorts  of  earth  exist  within  a 
small  area,  in  almost  any  locality,  especially  in  glacial  drift 
whereon  so  many  of  these  tumuli  and  allied  remains  are  standing. 
Any  or  all  of  it  would  serve  their  purpose,  and  the  small  quan- 
tity of  any  particular  kind  used  at  one  spot  shows  that  the  laborers 
consulted  their  own  convenience  as  to  the  places  where  they  would 
procure  it,  or  the  amount  that  they  could  carry  at  one  time. 
Occasionally  the  work  was  suspended  so  long  that  weeds,  bushes, 
even  small  trees,  sprung  up;  and  occasionally  the  evidence  of 
more  than  one  such  interruption  has  been  observed.  In  cases  of 
this  kind  it  is  easy  to  see  that  a  number  of  years  elapsed  between 
the  beginning  of  the  structure  and  its  completion ;  which  scarcely 
comports  with  the  idea  of  "toiling  masses,"  or  "severe  task-mas- 
ters." 

Some  very  foolish  theories  have  been  advanced  by  persons 
not  content  with  mere  earth  as  the  sole  element  in  mound  build- 
ing ;  for  instance  : — 

"  It  is  not  improbable  that  many  of  the  dead  were  burned,  and  that 
their  ashes  were  heaped  together,  constituting  mounds."  —  S.  &  D.,  172. 

It  probably  never  occurred  to  the  authors  to  figure  out  how 
many  Mound  Builders  would  have  to  be  burned  to  make  a  mound 
ten  feet  high;  nor  did  they  reflect  that  such  ashes  would  not 
retain  their  consistency  for  very  many  years. 

This  conceit  has  no  better  foundation  than  the  discovery  of 
mounds  whose  interior,  like  that  of  the  structure  at  Grave  Creek, 
is  largely  made  up  of  the  material  gathered  on  a  village  site,  and 
containing  all  the  debris  of  culinary  and  other  domestic  occu- 
pations. From  shallow  burials,  from  cremation,  and  from  burn- 
ing of  prisoners,  it  is  quite  probable  that  fragments  of  human 
bone  would  also  be  collected ;  and  a  few  of  these  observed  among 
other  substances  is  the  only  authority  for  their  surmise.  That 
such  is  the  case  is  shown  by  the  following  quotation : — 

Three  miles  below  the  large  mound  at  Harness's  on  Walnut  creek, 
a  mound  nine  feet  high  and  forty  feet  in  diameter  was  composed  of  some- 
thing resembling  long  exposed  and  highly  compacted  ashes,  intermingled 
with  specks  of  charcoal,  small  bits  of  burned  bones,  and  fragments  of 
sandstone  much  burned.  Beneath  this  was  a  sort  of  core  or  nucleus  of 
very  pure  white  clay  of  somewhat  regular  outline.     Two  other  mounds. 


How  Mounds  Were  Built.  321 

near  Chillicothe,  had  the  same  appearance,  but  without  the  clay  at  the 
bottom.  They  were  mainly  composed  of  ashes,  bits  of  charcoal,  and  small 
quantities  of  burned  bones  in  small  fragments.  "  In  some  instances,  if  not 
in  all,  the  calcined  bones  were  those  of  the  human  skeleton.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  mounds  were  composed  of  the  ashes  of  the  dead, 
burned  elsewhere,  and  finally  thus  heaped  together.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  such  was  the  case  in  a  few  instances."  —  S.  &  D.,  180. 


In  the  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
are  occasional  references  to  the  *'mortar"  which  is  found  in 
various  mounds.  This  does  not  mean  what  is  usually  known 
by  that  term,  namely,  a  mixture  of  lime  and  sand.  This  was 
unknown  to  the  aborigines.  The  material  so  designated  is 
some  form  of  earth,  either  puddled  or  burned,  and  perhaps  mixed 
with  ashes.  Thus  prepared,  it  becomes  very  hard  and  compact 
if  kept  dry. 

;|;  *  5j;  ;|;  ^ 

The  site  upon  which  a  mound  was  to  be  erected  was  gen- 
erally made  as  clean  as  possible,  though  the  sod  was  not  always 
removed.  Graves,  most  of  them  less  than  two  feet  deep,  are  some- 
times found  in  the  earth  beneath  tumuli ;  in  some  of  these,  the 
disposition  of  the  bodies  and  the  character  of  the  associated  spec- 
imens are  much  the  same  as  in  the  mound  above  them ;  in  others, 
there  is  a  marked  difference.  In  the  latter  case,  the  sod  line 
usually  extends  unbroken  over  them,  so  that  they  must  be  of 
considerably  earlier  date  than  the  mound,  and  it  fnay  be  they 
owe  their  origin  to  a  different  people. 


21 


CHAPTER  X 


STRUCTURE   AND    CONTENTS    OF    MOUNDS. 
NORTHERN    OHIO. 

VERY  few  records  are  at  hand  in  regard  to  mound  explora- 
tion in  the  northern  part  of  Ohio.  The  tumuH  are  small, 
one  of  the  largest  reported,  about  three  miles  southeast 
of  Cleveland,  being  ''ten  feet  high  by  sixty  feet  in  diameter  at 
the  base."—  S.  &  D.,  37. 

Their  contents,  so  far  as  may  be  judged  from  meagre  ac- 
counts, are  greatly  inferior  in  amount  and  variety  to  those  from 
mounds  farther  to  the  south,  and  are  not  usually  of  a  nature  to 
appeal  so  strongly  to  the  fancy  of  a  collector.  At  the  same  time, 
surface  specimens  seem  to  be  abundant,  with  a  larger  proportion 
of  symmetrical,  well-finished,  really  artistic  pieces  among  them. 
No  doubt  if  a  systematic  examination  were  made,  the  results 
would  be  of  considerable  interest  to  archaeologists,  at  least,  if 
not  to  cabinet  owners;  it  would  be  well  worth  while  to  learn 
something  as  to  the  social  condition  of  the  ancient  inhabitants 
of  this  section  from  their  remains,  for  comparison  with  the  earliest 
records  of  the  Indians  found  here  by  the  whites.  It  might  be 
determined,  in  this  way,  whether  people  in  various  stages  of 
advancement  occupied  the  region  at  different  eras  in  prehistoric 
times.  It  is  confidently  asserted  by  many  that  such  is  the  case; 
but  convincing  evidence  of  it  is  lacking.  At  Norwalk, 

"  in  the  small  mound  outside  of  the  enclosure  B  [see  figure  53]  were 
three  pipes,  one  of  marble  and  two  of  clay;  two  valves  of  a  clam  shell, 
■each  with  three  holes,  as  if  for  a  handle;  a  'stone  hoe;'  and  a  small, 
rude  pot.  All  these  articles  were  taken  from  the  vicinity  of  coals  and 
ashes,  and  burned  human  bones.  These  relics,  as  also  the  skeletons  found 
with  them,  were  probably  those  of  the  more  recent  Indians,  and  con- 
stituted a  second  and  comparatively  late  deposit.  The  burned  remains, 
doubtless,  resulted  from  the  original  burial  by  fire."  —  S.  &  D.,  37, 
condensed. 

There  is  no  reason  for  the  assertion  that  two  different 
peoples  made  use  of  this  tumulus.     Apparently  the  only  motive 

(322) 


Mound  in  Hardin  County.  323 

for  so  saying,  is  the  desire  to  maintain  a  distinction  between 
burials  where  cremation  was  used  and  those  where  it  was  not. 
The  skeletons  may  have  been,  and  probably  were,  those  of 
■^*  recent  Indians ;"  but  the  burned  bones  may  have  as  well  be- 
longed to  the  same  tribe  as  to  one  more  ancient. 

A  mound  removed  in  Hardin  county,  to  furnish  material 
for  railway  ballast,  is  reported  to  cover  an  area  of  one  and  a  half 
acres.     The  engineer  in  charge  of  the  work  says  of  it :  — 

"  The  mound  was  what  I  would  call  double ;  the  larger  and  higher 
part  to  the  west.  About  two-thirds  of  the  mound  was  embraced  in  this 
part.  The  eastern  part  presented  the  appearance  of  a  smaller  hill  having 
heen  pressed  against  the  other,  leaving  a  depression  betwen  them.  The 
interior  was  composed  of  clean  limestone  gravel  and  sand.  In  the  pro- 
gress of  removal,  I  found  the  eastern  or  small  part  of  the  mound  to  be 
literally  filled  with  graves.  The  modes  of  burial  had  been  various;  the 
depth  of  remains  varying  from  two  to  nine  feet ;  while  there  was  a  differ- 
-ence  of  posture  in  nearly  every  skeleton.  I  found  that  not  less  that  ten 
or  twelve  dogs  had  also  been  buried ;  the  human  and  canine  side  by  side. 
We  came  upon  a  grave  that  had  been  dug  oblong  almost  six  feet  deep, 
three  feet  wide,  and  over  seven  feet  long,  which  they  had  filled  with 
human  bones  promiscuously,  without  regard  to  order,  to  the  depth  of 
four  feet;  on  these,  in  regular  order,  were  placed  twenty-seven  skulls, 
with  the  top  of  the  skulls  up.  I  found  in  this  part  of  the  mound  the 
remains  of  at  least  fifty  children,  under  the  age  of  eight  years.  Nearly 
north  of  the  center  of  the  larger  or  western  part,  two  skeletons,  side  by 
side,  were  found  in  a  horizontal  position,  without  their  heads,  there  being 
no  evidence  of  skulls.  These  graves  were  about  four  feet  deep.  There 
were  two  rov»^s  of  graves  leading  direct  from  these  two  toward  the  center, 
each  pair  having  been  dug  deeper  as  they  approached  the  center  of  the 
mound,  the  last  pair  being  eighteen  feet  below  the  surface.  Various 
relics  of  stone  and  shell  were  found;  the  last  one  taken  out  had,  I  should 
think,  nearly  thirty  yards  of  beads.  His  remains  presented  the  appear- 
ance of  being  decorated  all  over.  The  whole  number  of  skeletons 
exhumed  by  me  was  three  hundred  and  eight.  I  could  not  ascertain 
how  many  had  been  previously  taken  out."  —  Matson,  126,  et  seq.,  con- 
densed. 

It  is  clear  this  account  has  to  do  with  what  was  in  the 
beginning  a  natural  knoll  of  glacial  origin,  utilized  as  a  burial 
place  by  the  inhabitants  of  a  village.  Of  course  no  Indians 
ever  dug  a  grave  eighteen  feet  deep.  What  they  did  here  was 
to  inter  the  bodies  in  the  knoll,  or  possibly  lay  them  on  its  sur- 
face, and  then  pile  earth  over  them.  This  was  continued  untd 
a  mound  was  formed  on  its  top.  The  lower  portion,  or  smaller 
mound,  may  have  been  an  extension  of  the  larger,  brought  to 


324  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

a  rounded  apex  in  the  same  manner;  or  it  may  be  entirely  ar- 
tificial. The  report  is  not  sufficiently  explicit  for  this  to  be  as- 
certained. Probably  the  mound  containing  the  first  series  of 
burials  was  carried  to  completion  before  the  other  was  begun. 
The  different  levels  of  interments ;  the  various  ages  represented, 
especially  the  large  percentage  of  children ;  and  the  variations 
in  the  position  or  arrangement  of  skeletons,  all  go  to  prove  that 
the  burials  extended  over  a  long  period.  The  grave  with  the 
twenty-seven  detached  skulls  was,  it  is  plain,  made  to  contain 
bones  gathered  elsewhere  and  brought  to  this  spot  at  one  time. 
This  practice  was  very  common  with  the  Hurons,  as  well  as 
with  other  known  tribes ;  the  former  dug  a  large  pit  every  ten 
or  twelve  years  in  which  to  place  the  bones  of  those  who  had 
died  since  the  last  preceding  "  Feast  of  the  Dead,"  as  this  cere- 
mony was  called.  But  there  is  no  record  that  they  ever  erected 
a  mound  over  the  burial  pit. 


CENTRAL  AND  SOUTHERN  OHIO. 

If  poverty  of  detail  is  embarassing  when  a  description  is  at- 
tempted of  mounds  in  northern  Ohio,  quite  the  reverse  is  en- 
countered in  the  southern  portion.  Amid  the  bewildering  array 
of  reports,  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  selection  which  shall  fairly 
present  results  without  unduly  swelling  the  number  of  pages. 
The  largest  share  of  space  must,  of  course,  be  allotted  to  the 
Scioto  Valley;  but  records  of  all  sections  w^ill  be  chosen  with  a 
view  to  informing  the  reader,  as  far  as  possible,  of  the  char- 
acteristic remains  of  each  locality.  All  must  be  more  or  less 
abbreviated. 

Although  outside  of  our  territory,  the  remains  of  that  part 
of  West  Virginia  lying  near  the  border  river  bear  such  similarity 
to  those  of  Ohio,  that  they  can  not  be  overlooked.  Parts  of 
Indiana  and  Kentucky,  also,  come  within  this  range,  but  no 
trustworthy  testimony  is  to  be  obtained  of  mound  exploration 
in  those  parts  near  Ohio. 

THE  GRAVE   CREEK    MOUND,   AT   MOUNDSVILLE, 

"  The  flats  of  Grave  creek  are  a  large  scope  of  bottom  land  in 
Marshall  county,  [West]  Virginia,  and  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Ohio 


The  Grave  Creek  Mound.  325 

river,  which  here  runs  due  south.  They  extend  from  north  to  south 
about  four  miles,  and  contain  about  three  thousand  acres.  Big  and 
Little  Grave  creeks  both  empty  into  the  Ohio  at  these  flats,  from  which 
they  derive  their  names.  The  creeks  themselves  doubtless  derived  their 
names  from  various  tumuli  or  mounds,  commonly  called  Indian  graves, 
which  are  found  on  these  flats,  and  especially  between  the  two  creeks. 
These  flats  are  composed  of  first  and  second  bottoms.  The  first  bottom 
is  about  two  hundred  yards  wide  and  runs  the  whole  length  of  the  flats. 
The  great  flood  of  1832  was  about  ten  feet  deep  on  the  first,  but  lacked 
about  ten  to  twenty  feet  of  the  height  of  the  second  bottom,  on  which  all 
the  ancient  Indian  works  and  mounds  are  situated;  no  signs  of  them 
being  on  the  lower  land.  This  (the  largest)  mound  is  surrounded  by 
various  other  mounds  and  ancient  works,  and  in  respect  to  the  surrounding 
localities,  the  situation,  as  respects  defence,  was  well  chosen,  on  the  brow 
of  the  second  bottom,  and  partially  encompassed  by  steeps  and  ravines. 
The  mammoth  mound  is  sixty-nine  feet  high.  Its  circumference  at  the 
base  is  over  three  hundred  yards.  It  is  the  frustum  of  a  cone,  and  has 
a  flat  top  of  fifty  feet  in  diameter.  This  flat  on  the  top  of  the  mound, 
until  lately,  was  dish  shaped.  The  depth  of  the  depression  in  the  centre 
was  three  feet,  and  its  width  forty  feet.  This  depression  was  doubtless 
occasioned  by  the  falling  in  of  two  vaults,  which  were  originally  con- 
structed in  the  mound,  but  which  afterwards  fell  in;  the  earth  sinking 
over  them,  occasioned  the  depression  on  the  top.  On  the  19th  of  March, 
1838,  we  commenced  an  excavation  in  this  mound.  We  commenced  on 
the  north  side,  and  excavated  towards  the  center.  Our  horizontal  shaft 
was  ten  feet  high  and  seven  feet  wide,  and  ran  on  the  natural  surface 
of  the  ground  or  floor  of  the  mound. 

"At  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  feet  we  came  to  a 
vault  that  had  been  excavated  in  the  natural  earth  before  the  mound 
was  commenced.  This  vault  was  dug  out  eight  by  twelve  feet  square  and 
seven  feet  deep.  Along  each  side  and  the  two  ends  upright  timbers 
were  placed,  which  supported  timbers  that  were  thrown  across  the  vault, 
and  formed  for  a  time  its  ceiling.  These  timbers  were  covered  over  with 
loose  unhewn  stone,  of  the  same  quality  as  is  common  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. These  timbers  rotted  and  the  stone  tumbled  into  the  vault;  the 
earth  of  the  mound  following,  quite  filled  it.  The  timbers  were  entirely 
deranged,  but  could  be  traced  by  the  rotten  wood,  which  was  in  such  a 
condition  as  to  be  rubbed  to  pieces  between  the  fingers.  This  vault  was 
as  dry  as  any  tight  room;  its  sides  very  nearly  corresponded  with  the 
cardinal  points  of  the  compass,  and  it  was  lengthwise  from  north  to 
south. 

"  In  this  vault  were  found  two  human  skeletons,  one  of  which  had 
no  ornaments  or  artificial  work  of  any  kind  about  it.  The  other  was 
surrounded  by  about  six  hundred  and  fifty  ivory  beads,  and  an  ivory 
ornament  about  six  inches  long,  flat  on  one  side  and  oval-shaped  on  the 
other.  [This  was  a  perforated  tablet,  with  incurving  sides.  Like  the  beads, 
it  was  made  of  shell  instead  of  "ivory."]  The  beads  resemble  button 
molds,  and  vary  in  diameter  from  three  to  five-eighths  of  an  inch.     In 


326  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

thickness  they  vary  from  that  of  common  pasteboard  to  one-fourth  of 
an  inch.     Above  I  count  only  the  v^hole  ones  left. 

"  After  searching  this  vault,  we  commenced  a  shaft  ten  feet  in  diam- 
eter, at  the  center  of  the  mound  on  top,  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  depres- 
sion before  spoken  of.  At  the  depth  of  thirty-four  or  thirty-five  feet 
above  the  vault  at  the  bottom,  we.  discovered  another  vault,  which  occu- 
pied the  middle  space  between  the  bottom  and  top.  It  had  been  con- 
structed in  every  respect  like  that  at  the  base  of  the  mound,  except  that 
its  base  lay  east  and  west,  or  across  that  at  the  base,  but  perpendicu- 
larly over  it.  It  was  equally  filled  with  earth,  rotten  wood,  stones,  etc., 
by  the  falling  in  of  the  ceiling.  The  floor  of  this  vault  was  also  sunken 
by  the  falling  in  of  the  lower  one,  with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of 
one  end. 

"  In  the  upper  vault  was  found  one  skeleton  only,  but  many  trinkets,, 
as  seventeen  hundred  ivory  beads,  five  hundred  sea  shells  of  the  involute 
species,  that  were  worn  as  beads,  and  five  copper  bracelets  that  were  about 
the  wrist  bones  of  the  skeleton.  There  were  also  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pieces  of  isinglass  [mica],  and  the  stone,  a  fac  simile  drawing  of  which 
I  send  you  herewith  [this  is  the  famous  "Grave  Creek  Tablet."]  The 
beads  found  in  this  vault  were  like  those  found  in  the  lower  one,  as  to 
size,  materials,  decay,  etc.  The  five  bracelets  weigh  seventeen  ounces. 
The  pieces  of  isinglass  are  but  little  thicker  than  writing  paper,  and  are 
generally  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  inches  square ;  each  piece  had  two 
or  three  holes  through  it  about  the  size  of  a  knitting  needle,  most  likely 
for  the  purpose  of  sewing  or  in  some  way  fastening  them  to  the  clothing. 

"  The  beads  were  found  about  neck  and  breast  bones  of  the  skele- 
tons. The  sea  shells  were  in  like  manner  distributed  over  the  neck  and 
breast  bones  of  the  skeleton  in  the  upper  vault.  The  bracelets  were  around 
the  wrist  bones.  The  pieces  of  isinglass  were  strewn  all  over  the  body. 
The  stone  with  the  characters  on  it  was  found  about  two  feet  from  the 
skeleton. 

"  The  skeleton  first  found  in  the  lower  vault,  was  found  lying  on 
the  back,  parallel  with  and  close  to  the  west  side  of  the  vault.  The  feet 
were  about  the  middle  of  the  vault ;  its  body  was  extended  at  full  length. 
The  left  arm  was  lying  along  the  left  side ;  the  right  arm  as  if  raised 
over  the  head,  the  bones  lying  near  the  right  ear  and  crossed  over  the 
crown  of  the  head.  The  head  of  this  skeleton  was  toward  the  south. 
There  were  no  ornaments  found  with  it.  The  earth  had  fallen  and  cov- 
ered it  over  before  the  ceiling  fell,  and  thus  protected,  it  was  not  much 
broken. 

"  The  second  skeleton  found  in  this  vault,  and  which  had  the  trin- 
kets about  it,  lay  on  the  west  side,  wnth  the  head  to  the  east,  or  in  the 
same  direction  as  that  on  the  opposite  side.  The  feet  of  this  one  were 
likewise  near  the  center  of  the  west  side.  The  earth  had  not  crumbled 
down  over  it  before  the  ceiling  fell,  consequently  it  was  much  broken, 
(as  was  also  that  in  the  upper  vault.)  There  is  nothing  in  the  remains, 
of  any  of  these  skeletons  which  differs  materially  from  those  of  com- 
mon people. 


The  Grave  Creek  Mound.  327 

"The  skeleton  in  the  upper  vault  lay  with  its  feet  against  the  south 
side  of  the  vault,  and  the  head  towards  the  northeast.  It  is  highly  prob- 
able that  the  corpses  were  all  placed  in  a  standing  position,  and  subse- 
quently fell. 

"  The  mound  is  composed  of  the  same  kind  of  earth  as  that  around 
it,  being  a  fine  loamy  sand,  but  differs  very  much  in  color  from  that  of 
the  natural  ground.  After  penetrating  about  eight  feet  with  the  first  or 
horizontal  excavation,  blue  spots  began  to  appear  in  the  earth  of  which 
the  mound  is  composed.  On  close  examination,  these  spots  were  found 
to  contain  ashes  and  bits  of  burnt  bones.  These  spots  increased  as  we 
approached  the  center;  at  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  feet 
within,  the  spots  were  so  numerous  and  condensed  as  to  give  the  earth 
a  clouded  appearance.  Every  part  of  the  mound  presents  the  same  appear- 
ance, except  near  the  surface.  I  am  convinced  that  the  blue  spots  were 
occasioned  by  depositing  the  remains  of  bodies  consumed  by  fire. —  Tom- 
linson,  197,  et  scq.,   condensed. 

"  The  mode  of  its  construction  appears  to  have  been  by  carrying 
earth  in  bags  or  vessels,  from  the  plain,  and  emptying  them  out  by  hand. 
The  earth  is  entirely  made-earth,  without  the  least  appearance  of  strati- 
fication. *  *  *  'pj^g  removal  of  the  earth  appears  to  have  been  made 
in  small  portions,  from  several  points,  and  at  convenient  intervals." — 
Schoolcraft,   Grave  Creek,  373. 

Concerning  the  depression  in  the  top,  Cuming  said  in  1807,. 

"  In  the  center  of  the  flat  top  is  a  shallow  hollow,  like  the  filled  up 
crater  of  an  old  volcano,  which  hollow  or  settle  is  said  to  have  formed 
within  the  memory  of  the  first  neighboring  settlers,  and  is  supposed  by 
them  to  be  occasioned  by  the  settling  of  the  earth  on  the  decayed  bodies.'^ 
—  Cuming,  97. 

If  the  statement  of  the  pioneers  be  true  —  it  is  impossible 
now  to  verify  or  disprove  it  —  the  mound  must  be  of  compara- 
tively recent  origin.  No  matter  how  solid  and  strong  the  logs 
may  have  been  when  put  in,  they  would  at  once  begin  to  ab- 
sorb moisture  from  the  earth  surrounding  and  in  contact  with 
them.  This  would  lead  to  a  gradual  weakening.  We  have  no 
data  whatever  on  which  to  base  an  'estimate  df  the  length 
of  time  timber  would  be  able  to  stand  the  strain  upon  it  in  this 
situation;  but  it  must  surely  succumb  within  two  or  three  cen- 
turies. Wood  lasts  indefinitely  when  kept  perfectly  dry  or  when 
saturated  continuously;  but  when  exposed  to  both  air  and 
moisture,  no  matter  in  how  slight  degree,  decay  ensues.  Porous 
earth,  like  that  of  which  the  mound  was  built,  permits  sufficient 
circulation  of  both  air  and  water  to  afifect  any  substance  sus- 
ceptible to  their  influence.    Under  such  circumstances  wood  must 


328  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

yield  to  the  pressure  upon  it,  within  a  few  generations  at  the 
most.  If  we  could  be  certain  that  the  early  settlers  were  correct 
in  their  assertion,  we  would  be  justified  in  declaring  that  the 
Grave  Creek  mound  does  not  antedate  the  days  of  Columbus; 
and  as  it  is  the  largest  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  many  others  are  prob- 
ably no  older.  But  there  may  be  some  mistake  made  by  Cuming 
or  his  informants. 

The  structure  no  doubt  still  conceals  a  great  deal  more  than 
has  been  exhumed ;    for 

"Another  observer,  Dr.  Clemens,  states  *  *  *  'On  reaching  the 
lower  vault  from  the  top,  it  was  determined  to  enlarge  it  for  the  accom- 
modation of  visitors,  when  ten  more  skeletons  were  discovered."  — 
Foster,  191. 

The  burned  bones  and  ashes  mingled  with  earth  and  form- 
ing the  "  bluish  spots,"  so  far  from  denoting  cremation  of  human 
corpses,  are  only  masses  of  refuse  taken  up  in  the  vicinity  of 
dwellings.  This  would  be  easy  to  scoop  up,  light  to  carry,  and 
with  a  thick  coating  of  heavy  earth  to  protect  it  from  storms 
would  answer  the  purpose  as  well  as  material  more  difficult  to 
procure. 

It  is  clear  that  the  Grave  Creek  mound  involved  two  periods 
of  construction.  First,  a  mound  was  built  over  the  lower  vault ; 
afterward  another  vault  or  chamber  was  made  on,  or  in,  the 
top  of  this,  and  the  second  portion  built  over  all. 

CHARLESTON,  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

Exactly  the  same  method  of  formation,  though  with  a  some- 
what  different  interior  arrangement  was  observed  in 

"a  mound  near  Charleston,  West  Virgmia,  conical  in  form,  about 
175  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base  and  35  feet  high.  It  consists  of  two 
mounds,  one  buih  on  the  other,  the  lower  or  original  one  20  feet,  and  the 
upper  15  feet  high.  Near  the  top  was  a  stone  vault  7  feet  long  and  4 
feet  deep,  in  the  bottom  of  which  was  found  a  large  and  much  decayed 
skeleton,  but  wanting  the  head,  which  the  most  careful  examination  failed 
to  discover.  At  a  depth  of  six  feet  was  another  skeleton,  and  at  nine 
feet  a  third.  Below  this  were  the  remains  of  a  timber  vault  about  12  feet 
square  and  7  or  8  feet  high.  Some  of  the  walnut  timbers  of  this  vault 
were  12  inches  in  diameter.  A  skeleton  found  lying  on  the  floor  in  the 
middle  of  this  vault,  19  feet  below  the  top  of  the  mound,  measured  7  feet 
6  inches  in  length,  and  19  inches  between  the  shoulder  sockets.  There 
were  four  other  skeletons  in  this  vault,  which,  from  the  positions  in 
which  they  were  found,  were  supposed  to  have  been  placed  standing  in 


Mounds  at  Charleston,   West  Virginia.  329 

the  four  corners.     The  relics  found  are  entirely  similar  to  those  of  Ohio 
mounds." — Buried  Mounds,  51,  condensed. 

A  mound  in  the  same  group  with  the  last  mentioned,  also 
covered  a  wooden  vault  made  on  the  surface  of  the  ground ;  but 
none  had  been  made  above  it.     The  structure. 

"  was  examined  by  sinking  a  large  central  shaft  to  the  bot- 
tom." For  the  first  fifteen  feet  "  the  material  passed  through  was  an 
exceedingly  hard,  gray  mixture,  apparently  of  ashes  and  clay  (1).  At 
this  depth  the  casts  of  poles  and  timbers  of  various  sizes  began  to  be  seen, 
but  all  were  less  than  a  foot  in  diameter,  extending  into  the  western  and 
southern  sides  of  the  shaft.  These  casts  and  rotten  wood  and  bark  con- 
tinued to  increase  in  amount  nearly  to  the  natural  soil,  which  was  reached 
at  a  depth  of  25  feet.  The  debris  being  removed  and  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft  being  enlarged  until  it  was  14  feet  in  diameter,  it  was  then  found 
that  these  timbers  had  formed  a  circular  or  polygonal  vault  12  feet  across 
and  some  8  or  10  feet  high  at  the  center.  This  had  been  built  up  in  the 
form  of  a  pen,  the  ends  of  the  poles  extending  beyond  the  corners.  The 
roof  must  have  been  sloping,  as  the  ends  of  the  poles  used  in  making  it 
extended  downward  beyond  the  walls  on  which  they  rested."  —  B.  E. , 
12.  428. 


Typical  mounds  in  various  parts  of  Ohio  will  now  be  con- 
sidered, taking  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and  two  Miami  valleys 
in  their  order.  Those  described  may  seem  to  be  chosen  some- 
w^hat  at  random.  This  is  due  to  a  desire  to  cover  the  field  as 
far  as  practicable  and  to  copy  from  investigators  who  observe 
closely  and  report  accurately  what  they  find.  A  list  of  such 
workers  would  include  many  times  the  number  of  names  used 
here ;  but  as  only  a  few  of  them  can  be  cited,  it  must  be  under- 
stood that  no  "  odious  comparison  "  is  ventured.  It  is  confi- 
dently believed  that  implicit  reliance  may  be  placed  on  all  state- 
ments of  facts ;  if  any  deductions  from  them  seem  unwarranted, 
a  difference  of  opinion  will  be  expressed. 

KNOX  COUNTY. 

The  plan  of  the  large  mound  in  the  cemetery  at  Mount 
Vernon,  Ohio,  is  shown  in  figure  96  (B.  E.  12,  page  z^4,  fig. 
306)  ;  and  a  section  in  figure  97  (B.  E.  12,  page  445,  fig.  307). 

"  It  was  conical  in  form,  unusually  symmetrical,  the  base  being  almost 
a    circle.     Diameter    80    feet,    and    height    11.     *     *     The    mode    of    con- 

(1).  This  was  only  the  fine  silt  that  is  common  in  river  bottom  lands 
in  this  region.     When  packed,  it  is  almost  as  hard  as  frozen  earth. 


330 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


struction  is  shown  in  the  plan  and  in  the  vertical  section  from  east  to 
west.  First,  a  2-inch  layer  (a)  of  surface  sod,  then  4  feet  of  fine  yellow 
clay_(b)  free  of  stones;  below  this,  the  central  core  (e)  reaching  to  the 
original  surface,  of  soil,  apparently  from  the  valley  to  the  north.     The 


Street 


Figure  96  —  Plan   of   Cemetery  Mound. 

small  masses  or  leads  in  which  it  was  deposited  were  very  distinct.  *  * 
This  central  mass  was  interrupted  by  a  few  [three]  thin  seams  of  gray 
earth;  [each  about]  two  inches  thick.  *  *  In  the  central  portion  of  the 
mound,  resting  on  the  original  surface  of  the  ground,  was  an  irregularly 
quadrilateral  stone  enclosure  (k).    This  was  built  up  loosely  of  rough  sur- 


Figure  97  —  Section  of  Cemetery  Mound. 

face  sandstones,  all  with  the  weathered  side  up.  The  east  and  west  di- 
ameter varied  from  10  to  13  feet,  the  north  and  south  from  13  to  15.  The 
thickness  of  the  wall  at  the  base  was  from  5  to  10  feet,  the  height  from 
1|  to  3  feet.  The  stones  were  piled  up  without  any  attempt  at  regularity. 
*  *  *  Within  the  space  enclosed  by  the  wall,  and  extending  partly  under 
it  on  the  east  side,  was  a  basin-shaped,  circular  pit,  12  feet  in  diameter 
and  2i  feet  deep.     It  was  mostly  filled  with  dark  soil  in  small  masses. 


The  Cemetery  Mound  at  Mt.   Vernon.  331 

like  that  of  the  overlaying  mass  (I)  with  which  it  seems  to  be  continuous, 
resting  on  a  white  substance  (t)  an  inch  thick,  possibly  the  ashes  of 
hickory  bark,  which  covered  most  of  the  bottom  of  the  pit  and  extended 
over  a  skeleton  on  the  west  side.  The  portion  covering  the 
skeleton  was  very  hard,  being  difficult  to  penetrate  with  a  pick. 
The  remainder  of  it  was  quite  loose.  The  skeleton  (w)  which  was  badly 
decayed,  lay  at  full  length  with  the  head  at  the  west  margin  of  the  pit 
and  the  feet  toward  the  center.  Around  it  was  a  quantity  of  decayed 
vegetable  matter,  possibly  the  remains  of  bark  wrapping.  On  the  under 
jaw  was  a  crescent-shaped  piece  of  copper,  about  the  hips  several  shell 
beads,  along  the  left  arm  a  few  bear's  teeth,  and  about  the  head  the  re- 
mains of  some  textile  fabric. 

"  The  letters  m,  n,  and  o,  mark  the  position  of  fire-beds ;  m  and  n 
were  on  the  level  of  the  original  surface,  extending  slightly  over  the  pit, 
n  being  mostly  under  the  wall  and  m  entirely  so.  Each  was  about  six 
feet  in  diameter,  and  the  clay  soil  beneath  them  for  about  a  foot  in  depth 
was  burned  to  a  light  brick  red.  The  one  at  o,  about  the  center  of  the 
pit,  was  comparatively  small,  and  the  clay  beneath  but  slightly  baked, 
indicating  that  but  a  single  fire  had  been  kindled  on  it.  Just  outside  the 
eastern  wall  were  four  small  pits  or  holes  in  the  natural  soil,  each  about 
a  foot  in  depth  and  9  inches  in  diameter,  arranged  as  shown  by  p,  q,  r  and 
V.  Two  of  them,  q  and  r,  were  filled  with  a  dark-brown  '  sticky  sub- 
stance' in  which  were  a  number  of  split  animal  bones."  —  B.  E.,  12,  444-5. 

Holes  such  as  those  described  are  very  common;  there  must 
be  others  under  this  mound.  An  inspection  of  the  cuts,  in  con- 
nection with  the  description  quoted,  shows  that  the  grave  was 
dug,  body  deposited,  ashes  spread,  wall  built  around,  and  no 
doubt  the  vault  covered  with  wood.  The  sag  in  the  sod-lines 
g  and  h  show  they  fell  in  together;  so  the  wood  must  have 
retained  its  strength  until  the  sod  h  grew.  Then  the  pit  thus 
formed  at  the  top  was  filled  and  left  until  the  sod  at  d  was  well 
set;  after  which  the  mound  was  completed.  The  stones  must 
have  been  intentionally  placed  with  the  weathered  side  up,  for 
if  left  exposed  until  thus  marked  the  ashes,  etc.,  below  them 
would  have  been  displaced  or  even  obliterated  by  the  elements. 

LICKING  COUNTY. 

On  one  of  the  highest  hills  in  Licking  County,  about  two 
miles  southwest  of  Brownsville,  is  the  group  of  mounds  illus- 
trated in  figure  98  (B.  E.  12,  458,  fig.  314).  It  is  inter- 
esting as  combining  in  one  group,  in  small  area,  four  types 
of  works.  Number  i  is  an  earth  mound  120  feet  in  diam- 
eter  and,    at   present,    15    feet   high;    its    former   elevation    was 


532 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


about  five  feet  greater,  but  relic  hunters  have  removed  the  upper 
portion.  The  earth  exposed  by  their  excavations  is  burned  to  a 
deep  red;  pieces  of  sandstone  and  flint  lying  about  are  almost 
destroyed  by  heat.  Quantities  of  charcoal  were  found;  some 
of  it  was  in  the  form  of  upright  posts  which  were  dug  out  to  a 
depth  as  great  as  could  be  reached  by  a  long-handled  shovel. 
The  whole  interior  must  have  been  filled  with  charcoal,  if  the 
statement  of  the  owner  (corroborated  by  other  testimony)  is  to 
be  accepted.  He  says  that  some  years  ago  boys  set  fire  to  it  "  at 
corn-cutting  time " ;  it  smouldered  all  winter,  and  the  next 
spring  ''  when  plowing  for  oats,"  the  earth  of  the  mound  was 
noticeably  warmer  than  that  around  it. 


'''''''lilnm^^^ 


Figure  98  —  Group  of  Mounds    South   of   Brownsville. 


Number  2  is  an  earth  mound  100  feet  in  diameter  and  now 
five  feet  high.  Surrounding  it  is  a  circular  ditch  a  foot  deep; 
and  outside  of  this  is  a  circular  embankment  two  feet  in  eleva- 
tion and  240  feet  from  crest  to  crest.  Long  cultivation  has  much 
lowered  the  mound  and  wall  and  correspondingly  filled  the  ditch. 

Number  3,  which  is  shown  in  figure  99,  is  composed  of 
stones,  none  of  them  larger  than  a  man  can  easily  handle.  It 
is  80  feet  in  diameter.  The  summit  has  been  lowered  by  relic 
hunters,  who  threw  out  the  stones  at  the  center  to  the  bottom ; 
should  these  be  restored,  the  apex  would  be  at  least  ten  feet 
from  the  ground.  An  elevation  around  the  margin  indicates 
an  encircling  wall  of  earth ;   but  it  may  be  due  to  the  plow. 


The  Taylor  Mound  near  Newark. 


33a 


Figure  99  —  Stone  Mound  in  Group  on  Page  330. 

Number  4  is  an  earth  mound  fifty  feet  in  diameter  and  two 
feet  high.  It  was  formerly  much  higher,  but  is  now  plowed 
down. 

^  :{c  :):  ^  ^ 


"  The  Taylor  mound  is  situated  about  two  and  a  half  miles  south  of 
Newark.  It  was  about  ten  feet  high  and  eighty  feet  in  diameter.  A  shaft 
eight  feet  in  diameter  was  sunk  from  the  top.  Next  below  the  surface 
soil  came  a  very  compact  layer  of  light  loam,  quite  different  from  the  soil 
of  the  ridge  on  which  it  stood;  and  its  peculiar  mottled  appearance  indi- 


334  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

cated  that  it  had  been  brought  to  the  spot  in  small  quantities.  About  seven 
feet  from  the  top  of  the  mound,  a  thin  white  layer  was  observed.  Near 
the  center  of  this  space  a  string  of  more  than  one  hundred  beads  of  native 
copper  was  found  and  with  it  a  few  small  bones  of  a  child,  about  three 
years  of  age.  A  foot  lower  were  two  adult  human  skeletons,  of  opposite 
sexes,  about  middle  age,  lying  one  above  the  other,  the  woman  uppermost, 
and  remarkable  well  preserved.  A  white  stratum  similar  to  that  above 
was  here  very  distinct.  The  earth  separated  readily  through  this  stratum 
which  proved  to  be  formed  from  two  decayed  layers  of  bark,  on  one  of 
which  the  bodies  had  been  placed,  and  the  other  covered  over  them.  The 
smooth  sides  of  the  bark  had  thus  come  together,  and  the  decomposition 
of  the  inner  layers  bad  produced  the  peculiar  white  substance.  Directly 
above  these  skeletons  was  a  layer  of  reddish  earth,  apparently  a  mixture 
of  ashes  and  burned  clay  which  covered  a  surface  of  about  a  square  yard. 
Near  the  middle  of  this  space  was  a  small  pile  of  charred  human  bones, 
the  remains  of  a  skeleton  which  had  been  burned  there.  The  fire  had 
evidently  been  continued  some  time  and  then  allowed  to  go  out;  when 
the  fragments  of  bone  and  cinders  that  remained  were  scraped  together 
and  covered  with  earth.  About  a  foot  lower,  and  somewhat  more  to  the 
•eastward,  a  second  pile  of  charred  human  bones  was  found  resting  on  a 
layer  of  ashes,  charcoal  and  burned  clay.  Immediately  beneath  this  de- 
posit a  third  white  layer  was  observed.  In  this  layer  was  a  male  skeleton. 
A  few  inches  deeper,  near  the  surface  of  the  natural  earth,  several  skele- 
tons of  various  ages  were  met  with,  which  had  evidently  been  buried  in 
a  hurried  manner.  All  were  nearly  or  quite  horizontal,  but  no  layer  of 
bark  had  been  spread  for  their  reception,  and  no  care  taken  in  regard  to 
arrangement  of  limbs.  About  four  feet  east  of  the  center  was  an  exca- 
vation, in  an  east  and  west  direction,  about  six  feet  long,  three  wide,  and 
nearly  two  deep.  In  this  grave  were  found  parts'  of  at  least  eight  skele- 
tons, which  had  evidently  been  thrown  in  carelessly  —  most  of  them 
soon  after  death,  but  one  or  two  not  until  the  bones  had  become  detached 
and  weathered.  Various  ages,  from  infancy  onward,  were  represented. 
Some  of  the  loose  human  bones  exhumed  from  the  bottom  of  the  grave, 
were  evidently  imperfect  when  thrown  in.  Among  these  was  part  of  a 
large  femur,  which  had  been  gnawed  by  some  carnivorous  animal,  ap- 
parently a  dog  or  a  wolf.  Quite  a  number  of  implements  of  various  kinds 
were  found  with  the  human  remains  in  this  grave,  among  them  a  large 
number  of  bone  implements,  all  exceedingly  well  preserved.  The  latter 
were  with  the  skeleton  of  an  aged  woman  of  small  stature,  which  was  bent 
together  and  lay  across  the  grave  with  its  head  toward  the  north.  Two 
small  vessels  of  coarse  pottery  were  found,  in  fragments.  Near  the  bottom 
of  the  mound,  and  especially  in  the  grave,  were  various  animal  bones,  most 
of  them  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation.  All  the  skeletons  in  this 
mound,  except  one,  appeared  to  have  been  buried  in  a  horizontal  position 
with  the  face  upward.  The  exception  was  the  skeleton  of  the  aged  female 
found  in  the  grave,  which  lay  on  its  side ;  those  which  had  received  a 
regular  interment  all  had  their  heads  turned  toward  the  east.  Parts  of 
at  least  seventeen  skeletons  were  exhumed;  eleven  of  these,   nearly  all 


Large  Mounds  near  Athens.  335 

of  which  were  the  remains  of  women  and  children,  had  been  interred  in  a 
hasty  and  careless  manner.  The  incremations  had  taken  place  directly  over 
the  tomb,  and  evidently  before  the  regular  interment  was  completed."  — 
Marsh,  condensed. 

ATHENS  COUNTY. 

"  On  the  'Wolf  Plains'  near  Athens,  is  a  group  of  seventeen  mounds. 
The  largest  of  these  is  the  Connett  Mound.  It  is  40  feet  high  and  about 
170  feet  in  diameter  of  base.  The  cubic  contents  are  437,742  cubic  feet. 
As  the  mounds  here  were  built  by  the  adding  of  small  quantities  —  about 
a  peck  in  the  average— to  the  growing  heap,  it  would  require  for  this 
mound  1,405,15-2  such  loads  of  earth.  Since  the  earth  was  taken  evenly 
from  the  surface  of  the  plain,  there  being  no  depressions  or  excavations 
anywhere  to  be  found,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  average  length  of  the 
journeys  to  and  from  the  mound  must  have  been  considerable. 

"  The  Beard  mound,  of  this  group,  was  about  thirty  feet  high  and 
with  a  diameter  of  base  of  one  hundred  and  fourteen  feet.     Owing  to  the 
removal  of  part  of  the  structure  I  was  able  to  study,  to  very  great  advan- 
tage, the  method  of  constructing  the  mound.    The  clean,   vertical   face 
presents  a  mottled  appearance  from  the  different  colors  of  the  material 
used.     The  dirt  was  thrown  down  in  small  quantities  —  averaging  about 
a  peck  —  as  if  from  a  basket,  and  the  outline  of  each  deposit  is  generally 
very    distinctly    discernible.     These    outlines    of    each    pile    or    basketful, 
are    somewhat    oval,    exactly    what    we    should    expect    in    a    dump-heap 
made  up  this  way,  of  earth  of  different  shades  of  color.     The  materials 
are  yellow   clayey   earth,    light   loam,   gravelly   earth   and   a  black   earth, 
which  I   call   'kitchen  refuse,'   the   latter   sometimes  becoming  lighter   in 
color  and  composed  of  gray  ashes.     There  is  nowhere  to  be  seen  anything 
like    stratification,    from    placing    the    materials    in    regular,    concentric 
layers,  as  has  been  claimed  in  the  structure  of  mounds.     It  is  rather  a 
vast  pile  of  dirt  thrown  down  without  order  or  system,  the  sole  object 
being  to  increase  the  magnitude  of  the  heap.     There  was  apparently  no 
plan  of  working  except  to  build  up  a  conical  mound  in  the  most  simple 
and  convenient  way  possible.     In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Beard  mound 
the  surface  was  very  uneven;    at  one  time  it  was  lowest  in  the  middle. 
The  dirt  was  scraped  up  from  the  surface  of  the  plain,  doubtless  wherever 
it  could  be  obtained  most   conveniently.     On   the   southwest   side   I   find 
large  quantities  of  the  dark  earth  which  I  have  called  'kitchen  refuse.' 
This  is  made  up  of  blackened  soil,  ashes,  charcoal,  bits  of  bone    (some 
burned   and    some   not),    fresh-water   shells,    land   snails,    bits   of   broken 
pottery  and  of  broken  flints,  and  small  stones,  generally  burnt,   such  as 
might  be  in  fires  built  on  the  ground.     This  refuse  was  gathered   from 
near  their  dwellings,  which  were  doubtless  not  far  off.     It  was  removed 
from  the  vicinity  of  the   dwellings  possibly  because  it  was   in   the   way 
there,  but  more  probably  because  it  was  a  convenient  material  to  throw 
upon'  the  growing  heap.     The  quantity  of  this   refuse  would   indicate   a 
considerable   population.     But   conceding  this,    I   am   nevertheless    led   to 
believe   that  the   large   Beard   mound   was   a   long  time   in   building,    for 


336  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"we  find  at  many  different  levels  the  proof  that  grasses  and  other  vegeta- 
tion grew  rankly  upon  the  earth  heap  and  were  buried  by  the  dirt.  This 
is  more  often  noticed  near  the  base  of  the  mound  where  the  area  to  be 
covered  was  so  large.  Whether  in  summer  the  grasses,  etc.,  grew  over 
a  part  of  the  area  while  work  was  going  on  elsewhere,  or  the  work  was 
intermitted  altogether  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  of  time,  it  may  be 
difficult  to  determine.  But  I  am  confident  that  many  years  elapsed  between 
the  commencement  and  completion  of  this  mound.  It  may  have  been 
the  work  of  several  generations  of  men. 

"  One  of  these  mounds  had,  from  long  cultivation,  been  reduced  in 
height  to  about  six  feet.  About  five  feet  below  the  top  we  came  upon 
large  quantities  of  charcoal,  especially  on  the  western  side.  Underneath 
the  charcoal  was  found  a  skeleton  with  the  head  to  the  east.  The  body 
had  evidently  been  enclosed  in  some  wooden  structure.  First  there  was 
a  platform  of  wood  placed  upon  the  ground,  on  the  original  level  of 
the  plain.  On  this  wooden  floor  timbers  or  logs  were  placed  on 
each  side  of  the  body,  longitudinally,  and  over  these  timbers  there 
were  laid  other  pieces  of  wood  forming  an  enclosed  box  or  coffin. 
A  part  of  this  wood  was  only  charred,  the  rest  was  burnt  to  ashes. 
The  middle  part  of  the  body  was  in  the  hottest  fire  and  many 
of  the  vertebrae,  ribs  and  other  bones  were  burnt  to  a  black 
cinder  and  at  this  point  the  enclosing  timbers  were  burnt  to 
ashes.  The  timbers  enclosing  the  lower  extremities  were  only  charred. 
I  am  led  to  think  that  before  any  fire  was  kindled,  a  layer  of  dirt  was 
thrown  over  the  wooden  structure,  making  a  sort  of  burial.  On  this 
dirt  a  fire  was  built,  but  by  some  misplacement  of  the  dirt,  the  fire 
reached  the  timbers  below,  and  at  such  points  as  the  air  could  pene- 
trate there  was  an  active  combustion,  but  at  others  where  the  dirt  still 
remained  there  was  only  a  smothered  fire  like  that  in  a  charcoal  pit. 
On  the  same  floor  with  the  remains  were  placed  about  five  hundred 
copper  beads  forming  a  line  almost  around  the  body.  Tliere  was  also 
evidence,  in  the  amount  of  burned  earth,  that  considerable  fires  had 
been  maintained  at  various  parts  of  the  mound  at  different  stages  of 
its  progress. 

"  Still  another  mound  was  from  16  to  18  feet  high,  with  a  diameter 
of  base  of  about  85  feet.  At  the  center,  on  the  original  surface  of  the 
ground,  we  found  a  small  pile  of  ashes,  burnt  human  bones,  etc.,  its 
diameters  being  about  2  and  2^  feet,  and  its  depth  in  the  center  from 
3  to  4  inches.  The  ground  below  showed  no  trace  of  fire,  and  the  earth 
immediately  above  was  also  in  its  natural  or  unburned  state,  so  it  was 
evident  no  burning  of  a  body  could  have  taken  place  there.  About  15 
inches  above  them  was  another  small  collection  of  burned  human  bones, 
a  carefully  prepared  pocket  of  them  enclosed  in  bark.  This  deposit 
was  from  12  to  15  inches  ia  length  by  6  inches  in  width.  The  bones 
were  free  from  ashes  and  had  been  picked  up  and  carefully  placed  in 
the  growing  mound.  No  implements  of  any  kind  were  found  with  the 
upper  bones.     In   the   lower   pile   of   ashes   and   bones   were   found   two 


Distance  zvhich  Earth  need  he  Carried.  337 

plates  of  copper  and  a  stone  tube.  They  had  been  burnt  with  the 
body  and  were  buried  with  it.  By  this  mound  we  prove  that  the  Mound 
Builders  practiced  cremation.  The  lower  pile  of  bones  was  brought 
there  with  the  burnt  ornaments,  etc.,  and  with  more  or  less  of  the 
ashes  of  the  fire.  The  bones  were  in  the  confusion  to  be  expected  from 
being  gathered  up  and  thrown  into  a  small  pile.  The  abundant  ashes 
would  imply  that  they  were  not  brought  far.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
upper  deposit  of  bones  contained  no  ashes  and  these  bones  might  have 
been  brought  from  a  distance  where  the  cremation  took  place."  —  An- 
drews, Mounds,  56  to  59,  and  71,  condensed. 

In  building  a  mound,  neither  the  size  nor  the  number  of 
loads  has  anything  to  do  with  the  average  distance  they  must 
be  carried — provided,  of  course,  the  earth  is  obtained  from  points 
as  near  at  hand  as  possible.  The  only  factors  to  be  dealt  with 
are  the  size  of  the  structure  and  the  depth  to  which  the  sur- 
rounding earth  must  be  excavated  to  procure  the  material. 

The  Connett  mound,  if  spread  out  to  a  uniform  thickness  of 
one  foot,  would,  according  to  the  volume  given,  cover  an  area 
of  437,742  square  feet.  Suppose,  however,  that  instead  of  a 
foot,  the  average  thickness  be  called  four  inches ;  then  the  mate- 
rial would  cover  1,313,226  square  feet.  A  circle  of  this  size  will 
have  a  radius  of  about  647  feet;  one-half  of  its  area  will  be 
circumscribed  with  a  radius  of  406  feet,  which  is,  consequently, 
the  "  average  distance  "  the  loads  must  be  carried.  If  the  earth 
be  taken  up  to  a  greater  depth  than  four  inches,  which  can  be 
as  easily  done,  the  "  average  distance  "  will  be  correspondingly 
reduced. 

At  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour  a  man  will  walk  800  feet 
in  three  minutes.  Allowing  five  minutes  for  filling  his  basket, 
in  eight  hours  he  would  carry  sixty  loads,  and  a  hundred  men 
could  carry  six  thousand  loads.  At  this  rate  the  mound  would 
be  built  in  234  days. 

LOWER  MUSKINGUM. 

The  level  area  on  top  of  the  "  cemetery  mound  "  at  Mari- 
etta (figure  90)  seems  too  contracted  for  any  practical  use; 
only  a  small  building  could  be  erected,  or  a  few  persons  find  room 
for  the  performance  of  any  sort  of  ceremonies.  It  gives  the 
impression  that  the  builders  simply  concluded  they  had  done 
as  much  as  they  wished,  or  as  they  had  intended,  in  honor  of 
the  deceased.  There  may,  however,  have  been  some  meaning  in 
22 


S38  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  truncated  top,  applicable  to  the  individual,  or  to  the  family 
or  office  of  one  thus  interred — for  there  is  no  doubt  the  structure 
is  a  burial  mound. 

In  figure  lOO  (S.  &  D.,  74,  fig.  17)  is  shown  the  "Temple 
Mound  "   of  the  Marietta  group. 

"  Within  the  larger  enclosure  are  four  elevated  squares  or  trun- 
'cated  pyramids  of  earth,  which,  from  their  resemblance  to  similar  erec- 
tions in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  merit  a  particular  notice.  Three 
'of  these  have  graded  passages  or  avenues  of  ascent  to  their  tops.  The 
principal  one  is  marked  A  in  the  plan.  *  *  *  It  is  one  hundred  and 
■eighty-eight  feet  long  by  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  wide  and  ten  high. 
Midway  upon  each  of  its  sides  are  graded  ascents,   rendering  easy  the 


Figure  100  —  "  Temple   Mound  "   at   Marietta. 

passage  to  its  top.  These  grades  are  twenty-five  feet  wide  and  sixty  feet 
long.  The  next  in  size  is  marked  B  in  the  plan,  and  is  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long  by  one  hundred  and  twenty  wide,  and  eight  feet  high. 
Those  at  the  sides  are  placed  somewhat  to  the  north  of  the  center  of 
the  elevation.  Upon  the  south  side  there  is  a  recess  or  hollow  way, 
instead  of  a  glacis,  fifty  feet  long  by  twenty  feet  wide.  *  *  *  Near 
the  eastern  angle  of  the  enclosure,  is  a  smaller  elevation  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  long,  fifty  broad  and  six  feet  high.  It  has  graded  ascents 
at  its  ends,  similar  in  all  respects  to  those  just  described.  *  *  *  Near 
the  northern  angle  of  the  work  is  another  elevation,  not  distinctly 
-marked."  —  S.  &  D.,  74. 

A  figure  of  the  "  cemetery  mound,"  and  a  list  of  works 
^containing  notices  of  it  and  of  the  group  to  which  it  belongs,  is 
given  by  Winsor. —  Winsor,  History,  I,  405. 


"Just  above  Cat's  Creek,  which  empties  into  the  Muskingum  a  mile 
;  above  Lowell,     *    *    *    in  a  small  mound  occurred  upon  the  base  line 


Mounds  near  Logan  and  Adelphi.  339 

an  altar  four  feet  square,  dipping  toward  the  center,  and  six  inches 
high  "  containing  many  fine  ornaments.  "  Below  [it]  were  found  two 
logs  ten  to  twelve  inches  in  diameter  resting  upon  a  second  larger  altar, 
but  in  it  there  were  no  remains."  —  Moorehead,  26. 

"  Near  Rainbow  station  Mr,  Davis  found  the  bones  of  a  young 
woman  in  a  kneeling  position  with  a  child's  skeleton  in  her  arms."  — 
Aloorehead,  27. 

HOCKING    COUNTY. 

"  Three  and  a  half  miles  southeast  of  Logan,  were  two  mounds. 
One,  about  ten  feet  high,  covered  a  grave  dug  to  a  depth  of  five  or  six 
feet  below  the  surface,  into  the  underlying  gravel.  No  traces  of  burnt 
earth,  ashes  or  charcoal  were  found  in  the  mound.  The  bones  of  the 
skeleton  at  the  bottom  of  the  grave  had  never  been  burned.  It  was 
exactly  like  a  modern  grave  with  an  earth  mound  over  it. 

"  In  the  center  of  the  second  mound,  9  or  10  feet  high,  perhaps 
5  or  6  inches  above  the  original  level,  with  a  layer  of  brown  loam  between, 
we  found  a  large  and  mixed  collection  of  bones,  all  burnt  and  in  very 
small  fragments.  They  were  spread  over  a  surface  of  perhaps  5  feet  long 
and  2  feet  wide.  They  evidently  had  been  burned  before  burial  in  the 
mound.  In  the  clay  and  dirt  perhaps  3  inches  above  the  layer  of  burnt 
bones,  we  found  a  part  of  the  bones  of  a  body  which  had  evidently  been 
buried  without  cremation.  A  few  inches  higher  there  w^ere  indications 
of  pretty  large  timbers  or  logs  forming  a  structure  something  like  a 
*  cob-house '  of  children,  or  a  rail  corn-crib  of  the  w^estern  farmers. 
These  timbers  were  in  places  only  charred,  and  the  charred  ends  were 
preserved.  The  direction  in  which  the  charred  wood  lay  was  for  the  most 
part  from  north  to  south.  The  unburned  body  also  lay  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. Over  the  charred  wood  horizon  was  red  burnt  earth  and  clay,  in 
some  places  nearly  three  feet  thick."  —  Andrews,  IMounds,  69,  condensed. 


Just  across  the  line  from  Adelphi  in  Ross  County,  are  two  enclos- 
ures only  a  few  yards  apart.  One  is  rudely  circular,  about  120  feet  in 
diameter ;  the  other,  somewhat  larger,  is  four-sided  with  rounded  corners. 
Each  consists  of  an  embankment  with  an  interior  ditch.  In  the  latter 
stood  a  mound  115  feet  long,  96  wide,  and  23  feet  high.  In  the  center 
of  this,  at  the  base,  were  the  remains  of  a  vault  about  ten  feet  square, 
made  of  logs  about  a  foot  in  diameter.  At  each  corner  was  a  large 
upright  post;  the  bottom  seems  to  have  been  covered  wuth  poles.  The 
lower  tier  of  logs  was  a  foot  in  the  original  soil,  showing  that  a  shallow 
grave  had  been  dug.  The  pen  or  vault  seemed  to  have  had  only  two  or 
three  logs  on  a  side.  It  was  covered  to  a  height  of  18  feet  with  earth 
which  must  have  been  carried  from  the  valley  200  feet  below,  as  there 
is  none  of  the  same  character  nearer.  In  this  could  easily  be  traced 
the  little  loads  or  masses  by  which  it  had  been  built  up.     The  remain- 


340 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


ing  five  feet,  to  the  top  of  the  mound,  was  of  clay  such  as  forms  the 
surface  soil  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 

A  plan  and  sections  of  the  above  mound  are  shown  in  figure 
loi  (B.  E.  12,  p.  448). 


,,,,,J5/'U'/liiiilitaiiiliH|il!lill(\W ,.^ 

•/*/l)l)ip))!)!|illl^^ 


SecCcorv.  B. 


SectCoTv.  C. 


Figure   101  —  Enclosure,    with   Interior   Mound,    in   Hocking   County. 

In  a  mound  near  Adelphi,  a  circular  basin  13  feet  in  diameter  and 
2  feet  deep  at  the  center,  was  excavated,  and  the  entire  bottom  covered 
with  a  layer  two  inches  thick  of  ashes  and  charcoal.  On  this  were  laid 
five  skeletons  folded  into  the  smallest  compass.  The  basin  was  then 
leveled  up  with  a  deposit  of  blue  clay,  over  which  there  was  heaped 
earth   from   the   surface   around,    forming   a   mound    which   measured   32 


The  "Snake  Den'  Mounds  in  Pickazvay  County.       341 

feet  in  diameter  and  2h  feet  high.  A  small  quantity  of  burned  human 
bones  occurred,  apparently  burned  where  they  lay,  about  six  inches 
above  the  bottom  of  the  mound  near  the  center. —  B.  E.,  12,  471. 

PICKAWAY  COUNTY. 

"  Seven  miles  north  of  Circleville,  on  a  hilltop,  is  a  group  of  mounds 
and  circular  enclosures,  six  in  all,  known  as  the  'Snake  Den  Group.'  One 
is  an  artificial  clay  platform  about  three  feet  in  height,  110  feet  east  and 
west  and  90  feet  north  and  south.  Upon  this  platform  stands  a  stone 
mound  150  feet  in  diameter  [this  is  evidently  a  misprint ;  circumference  is 
meant].  About  twelve  feet  from  the  top  of  the  platform  of  earth  and 
stone,  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  south  side,  the  workmen  uncovered  55 
concretions.  These  ranged  from  half  an  inch  to  a  foot  in  diameter,  the 
largest  weighing  about  75  pounds;  they  were  all  included  in  a  space  of 
three  by  four  feet.  Scattered  among  them  were  many  fossils,  odd-shaped 
stones,  colored  pebbles,  and  numerous  stone  implements.  A  most  remark- 
able find  was  a  small  stone  box  three  and  one-half  inches  long,  three  inches 
deep,  made  of  the  halves  of  two  concretions  fitted  together.  Inside  were 
five  nuggets  of  silver  about  the  size  of  small  walnuts;  three  were  coated 
with  black  paint  and  two  with  pink  ochre.  Just  under  the  collection  were 
found  some  large  flat  stones  covering  a  grave  two  feet  long,  eighteen 
inches  wide  and  eight  inches  deep.  In  the  center  of  this  stone  vault  we 
found  about  a  cigar  box  full  of  cremated  bones.  There  was  no  evidence 
that  this  skeleton  had  been  burned  in  the  mound,  but  it  was  cremated 
elsewhere  and  the  fragments  brought  here  for  burial. —  Field  Work, 
VII,   111,  et  seq.,  condensed. 


"To  the  southwest  of  this  tumulus  [in  the  circle  at  Circleville], 
about  forty  yards  from  it,  is  another,  more  than  ninety  feet  in  height. 
It  stands  on  a  large  hill  which  appears  to  be  artificial.  This  must  have 
been  the  common  cemetery,  as  it  contains  an  immense  number  of  human 
skeletons,  of  all  sizes  and  ages.  The  skeletons  are  laid  horizontally,  with 
their  heads  generally  toward  the  center.  On  the  south  side  of  this  tumu- 
lus, and  not  far  from  it,  was  a  semi-circular  fosse  six  feet  deep.  At  the 
bottom  was  a  great  quantity  of  human  bones  which  belonged  to  persons 
who  had  attained  their  full  size."  —  Atwater,  179,  condensed. 

Of  course,  there  never  was  an  artificial  mound  "  ninety  feet 
in  height "  anywhere  in  the  State.  Either  there  is  an  error  in 
the  text,  or  else  the  writer  has  in  mind  one  of  the  large  gravel 
knolls  left  by  the  glacier.  If  the  latter,  the  skeletons  must  have 
been  near  the  top. 


342  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


ROSS  COUNTY. 

AT  FRANKFORT. 

Among  the  numerous  remains  in  the  vicinity  of  Frankfort,  were  two 
mounds  at  the  north  edge  of  the  village.  One  of  these,  was  nine  feet 
high  and  seventy-two  feet  across  the  base.  The  surface  on  which  it  stood 
had  been  carefully  leveled  off  and  burned.  Contrary  to  what  is  usual, 
it  had  no  remains,  not  even  an  ash-bed,  at  the  center  or  within  several  feet 
of  it.  Yet  it  was  one  of  the  most  productive  of  the  smaller  mounds  which 
have  been  opened  in  the  Scioto  Valley.  About  twenty  feet  from  the 
southern  margin,  three  feet  from  the  bottom,  were  three  copper  celts  on 
which  rested  eight  spool-shaped  ornaments ;  portions  of  three  human  ribs 
were  with  them,  but  no  other  traces  of  bones  could  be  found.  All  other 
remains  discovered  were  upon  the  burned  floor  of  the  mound. 

There  were  many  skeletons  of  bodies  interred  soon  after  death ;  and 
numerous  cremations  had  taken  place.  In  one  place  was  a  mass  of  loose 
black  dirt  extending  over  a  space  of  9^x14  feet  with  a  thickness  of  1|  to 
2^  feet.  This  covered  the  remains  of  seven  cremated  bodies,  each  lying  in 
a  little  pile  by  itself,  and  occupying  a  space  from  20  by  24  inches  to  24 
by  30  inches.  A  large  amount  of  copper,  in  the  form  of  celts,  spool- 
shaped  ornaments,  and  thin  plates  up  to  12  inches  in  length ;  shell  beads ; 
and  several  hundred  beautiful  pearls; — were  among  the  many  objects  de- 
posited without  any  particular  plan  or  arrangement.  While  relics  much 
injured  by  heat  were  found  with  many  of  the  cremated  bones,  some  of  the 
entire  skeletons  had  nothing  whatever  with  them. 

Two  altars  were  unearthed  neither  of  which  had  anything  in  it  or 
upon  it.  An  excavation,  rectangular  with  rounded  corners  like  the  cavi- 
ties in  the  altars,  measured  10x12  inches  and  8  inches  deep,  and  contained 
the  remains  of  a  young  child,  which  had  been  laid  on  its  side. 

The  second  mound,  whose  altitude  was  greatly  reduced  by  long  cul- 
tivation, measured  110  feet  in  length  by  50  feet  in  breadth.  Near  one  end 
was  an  ash-bed  seven  by  ten  feet  and  two  feet  in  thickness,  its  long  axis 
at  a  right  angle  to  that  of  the  mound.  Scattered  about  through  the  ashes 
with  no  regularity  as  to  position,  we  found  a  number  of  flint  flakes  and 
28  fine  leaf-shaped  flint  implements ;  five  plates  of  mica  cut  to  perfect 
circles,  somewhat  larger  than  a  silver  dollar ;  a  celt  of  symmetrical  form, 
highly  polished,  together  with  great  quantities  of  the  calcined  bones  of 
various  animals  and  birds.  Nearly  half  a  bushel  of  charred  hickory  nuts 
were  also  discovered,  and  hundreds  of  fragments  of  pottery.  The  most 
interesting  find  was  that  of  fourteen  earthenware  pots,  each  of  a  capacity 
of  about  two  quarts.  They  had  been  placed  in  the  ash-bed,  most  of  them 
with  the  mouth  turned  downward. 

At  the  center  was  a  space  two  by  four  feet,  where  the  earth  had  been 
burned  to  a  depth  of  three  inches.  On  this  was  piled  up  at  least  six 
bushels  of  ashes  in  a  dome-shaped  mass.  They  were  very  fine,  free  from 
the  slightest  admixture   of  charcoal   or  other  substance,   and  almost   as 


Mounds  at  Frankfort.  343 

white  as  snow.  They  had  been  carried  from  some  other  place  and  care- 
fully deposited  here. 

In  a  mass  of  fine,  soft,  black  earth,  were  two  thin  copper  plates,  one 
placed  above  the  other  and  about  an  inch  apart.  The  lower  plate  measured 
seven  by  nine  and  a  half  inches,  the  upper  six  by  eight  inches.  Spread 
out  evenly  upon  the  lower  plate  were  197  'large  shell  beads,  neatly  drilled, 
finely  polished,  and  perfect  in  every  respect.  Resting  upon  these,  in  con- 
tact with  the  upper  plate,  were  21  spool-shaped  copper  ornaments.  Traces 
of  wood  fibre  were  discernible  in  several  places  on  the  outer  side  of  both 
plates. 

Several  small  holes,  some  as  much  as  thirty  inches  deep,  were  found 
in  the  earth  beneath  one  of  the  Porter  mounds.  All  were  filled  with 
ashes,  but  only  one  contained  anything  else.  This  one  was  covered  with 
a  large  sheet  of  mica;    scattered  through  the  ashes  were  990  pearl  beads. 

In  this  mound  was  an  altar  made  in  the  following  manner : 

A  mass  of  clay  had  been  worked  or  kneaded  until  of  uniform  con- 
sistency, and  spread  on  the  bottom  in  a  layer  about  eight  inches  thick.  It 
had  been  dressed  off  at  the  sides  until  the  top  was  a  rectangle  24  by 
30  inches  the  corners  being  neatly  rounded.  A  depression  12  by  18  inches, 
with  a  depth  of  four  inches,  the  corners  rounded,  like  those  of  the 
outer  perimeter,  was  then  excavated,  leaving  a  rim  or  border  with  a  uni- 
form width  of  six  inches.  It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  all  these 
measure-s  omit  small  fractions  either  way.  After  this,  the  entire  altar  had 
been  subjected  to  an  intense  heat,  for  we  found  it  burned  hard  and  red 
throughout,  the  basin  being  filled  with  ashes  and  small  fragments  of  human 
bones  almost  destroyed  by  the  heat.  There  was  no  means  of  ascertaining 
whether  the  altar  had  been  burned  before  the  cremation  had  taken  place, 
or  whether  it  had  been  allowed  to  dry  in  the  air  and  hardened  by  the  same 
fire  that  had  consumed  the  body. 

One  well  preserved  skeleton,  measuring  over  six  feet  in  length,  lay 
extended,  with  head  to  the  south.  On  the  forehead  were  five  bear  tusks, 
each  with  several  holes  partially  drilled  through  it.  Probably  all  these 
perforations  had  formerly  held  smaller  teeth,  pearls,  or  some  other  objects. 
One  of  them  still  contains  the  tooth  of  a  ground-hog  neatly  fitted  into  it. 
By  the  left  side  of  the  head  lay  four  spool-shaped  copper  ornaments ;  at 
the  top  were  two  flat  beads  of  mussel  shell,  each  with  two  holes.  Near  the 
right  elbow  was  a  copper  plate  six  by  seven  inches. — Moorehead, 
Chap.  II. 

AT    HOPEWELL^S. 

Far  exceeding  in  beauty,  variety  and  scientific  value  the 
contents  of  any  other  mound-group  ever  explored  is  the  collec- 
tion— or  collections,  for  they  are  not  all  in  one  place — from  the 
mounds  within  the  Hopewell  enclosure  (figure  39).  Squier  and 
Davis  made  some  remarkable  finds  in  a  few  of  the  smaller 
mounds,  only  two  of  which  will  be  noticed  here.     A  third,  con- 


344 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


taining  a  greater  quantity  of  hornstone  disks,  will  be  described  in 
the  chapter  on  flint  instruments. 

Mound  No.  9  is  illustrated  in  figure   102    (S.  &  D.,   155, 

fig.  43). 

"  The  altar,  a,  instead  of  occupying  the  center,  is  placed  considerably 
towards  one  side,  and  a  layer  of  charcoal,  e,  fills  the  corresponding  oppo- 
site side.  Over  the  altar  curves  a  stratum  of  sand,  and  over  the  layer  of 
charcoal  still  another,  as  exhibited  in  the  section.  This  altar  *  *  *  was 
round,  not  measuring  more  than  two  feet  across  the  top."  It  contained 
large  thin  blades  of  obsidian;  perforated  scrolls  cut  from  thin  sheets  of 
mica ;  bone  needles ;  pearl  beads ;  a  stone  disk ;  and  thin,  narrow  slips  of 
copper. —  S.  &  D.,  155. 

Mound  No.  1  was  "not  over  three  feet  in  height.  *  *  *  in  place 
of  an  altar,  a  level  area  ten  or  fifteen  feet  broad  was  found,  much  burned, 
on  which  the  relics  had  been  placed.  These  had  been  covered  over  with 
earth  to  perhaps  the  depth  of  a  foot,  followed  by  a  stratum  of  small  stones, 
and  an  outer  layer  of  earth  two  feet  in  thickness.     Hundreds  of  relics 


Figure  102  —  Mound,    with  Altar,   Hopewell  Group. 

*  *  *  *  were  taken  from  this  mound,  among  [them]  several  coiled 
serpents  [one  of  which  is  shown  in  figure  279]  carved  in  stone,  and 
carefully  enveloped  in  sheet  mica  and  copper ;  pottery ;  carved  fragments 
of  ivory ;  a  large  number  of  fossil  teeth ;  numerous  fine  sculptures  in 
stone,  etc."  — S.  &  D.,   157. 

The  supposed  "  ivory  "  in  this  instance  was  shell ;  probably 
from  the  thicker  parts  of  large  sea  shells. 

A  very  thorough  exploration  of  this  group  was  made  in 
the  winter  of  1892,  by  W.  K.  Moorehead.  A  full  account  of 
the  work  has  not  yet  been  made  public.  Moorehead  gives  a 
sketch  which  is  merely  a  brief  abstract  of  field  notes,  with  some 
drawings  previously  published.  At  the  time  of  writing  he  had 
not  access  to  the  original  report  nor  to  the  material  exhumed. 
Only  a  few  of  his  observations  and  conclusions  will  be  pre- 
sented here. 

"  We  c^annot,  after  explorations,  consider  the  [largest  mound]  as 
being  composed  of  three  mounds,  but  that  it  is  formed  by  the  grouping 
together  of  a  number  of  small  mounds,  and  that  over  their  irregular  con- 


The  Hopewell  Mounds.  345 

ftour  was  heaped  a  great  mass  of  earth  and  gravel,  giving  it  its  present 
appearance."  —  W.  K.  M.,  119. 

Of  two  skeletons,  indicated  only  by  fragmentary  bones,  he 
^ays : — 

"  I  think  that  these  were  in  the  original  center  of  the  mound,  and 
were  the  first  interments  made.  The  small  mound  erected  over  them 
evidently  permitted  water  to  collect  about  the  remains.  One  of  the  dome- 
shaped  structures,  such  as  have  been  described,  surrounded  them,  the  earth 
was  very  loose  and  the  structure  appeared  to  have  been  larger  than  that 
built  around  any  other  skeleton.  Both  skeletons  lay  with  their  heads  to 
the  west.  The  sheet  copper  had^  been  found  ten  feet  south  of  them. 
Right  over  the  skeletons  were  sixty-six  copper  hatchets,  ranging  from 
four  ounces  to  thirty-eight  pounds  in  weight;  twenty-three  plates,  several 
dozen  broken  plates,  many  thousand  pearl  and  shell  beads,  perforated 
teeth  and  bear  tusks,  fragments  of  wood,  fragments  of  meteoric  iron, 
three  or  four  meteoric  iron  celts,  two  eagle  effigies  (badly  oxidized),  frag- 
ments of  carved  bones,  a  stone  celt,  a  broken  shell  and  several  copper 
figures  of  unknown  form  and  use. —  W.   K.   AI.,    241. 

"  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  state  that  the  entire  person  [whose  skele- 
ton is  marked  248]  glittered  with  mica,  pearl,  shell  and  copper.  All  that 
the  ancients  could  give  him  were  showered  upon  his  remains.  About  the 
legs  were  numerous  beads  and  fragments  of  copper  plates.  On  the  chest 
and  under  the  back  were  several  copper  plates  of  large  size.  Perhaps  a 
thousand  beads,  many  of  them  pearl,  were  strewn  everywhere  about  him. 
Bear  teeth,  cut  and  sawed  into  fantastic  shapes,  were  also  found  with  the 
remains.  There  were  copper  spool-shaped  ornaments  and  panther  teeth 
among  the  ribs.  Upon  the  copper  there  was  a  perfect  imprint  of  cloth, 
and  many  of  the  beads  had  been  sewed  to  the  cloth.  As  near  as  I  could 
judge,  a  cloth  or  skirt  had  extended  to  the  knees  of  the  skeleton.  At 
its  right  shoulder  was  a  large  platform  pipe  and  an  agate  spear  head. 
Over  the  cranium  had  been  placed  a  cap  or  helmet  of  copper.  This  was 
corroded  and  could  only  be  taken  out  in  fragments.  From  the  crown  of 
the  head  there  extended  wooden  antlers,  covered  with  thin  rolls  of  sheet 
copper.  They  were  fifteen  by  twenty  inches,  with  four  prongs  on  each 
side.  The  imitation  was  admirable.  These  antlers  were  exceedingly 
frail.  They  could  only  be  removed  by  taking  out  the  entire  mass  of  earth 
enclosing  them."     [These  are  shown  in  figure  298]. 

"List  of  sheet  copper  found  in  one  place  [in  this  mound].  A  long 
mass  of  copper  covered  with  wood  on  one  side,  squares  and  circles,  pat- 
terns, etc.,  on  the  other.  Eighteen  copper  rings  and  bracelets  [some 
"double"  rings].  Two  sets  of  anklets  joined  together  by  oxidation,  three 
in  one  and  two  in  the  other.  Five  saucer-shaped  disks.  Two  swastika 
crosses,  a  saw  pattern,  a  large  grotesque  arrow  head  and  several  unknown 
forms  stuck  together.  One  wheel  or  circular  pattern  with  straight  and 
curved  lines  and  bars  running  across  it.  Small  discs,  wheels,  etc.  One 
whole  fish    (evidently  a   sucker) ,    one   fragmentary  fish.     Two   diamond- 


346  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

shaped  stencils,  four  spool-shaped  ornaments,  four  comb-shaped  objects ^ 
one  St.  Andrew's  cross,  fifty-one  various  pieces  resembling  washers,  etc. 
Ten  small  circles,  and  other  fragments.  No  bones  were  near  this  singular 
copper  find.  It  occupied  a  space  three  by  four  feet,  and  had  somewhat 
discolored  the  surrounding  earth.  No  burnt  earth,  ashes,  charcoal,  etc., 
accompanied  the  sheets.  They  seem  to  have  been  intentionally  thrown 
down  (as  an  offering) ,  when  the  mound  was  partially  complete."  —  W.. 
K.  M.,  240. 

"An  enormous  log  was  found,"  also,  in  this  mound. 
A  great  number  of  other  interesting  finds  will  be  omitted; 
but  one  more  is  worthy  of  mention. 

"  Near  the  west  end  we  found  the  largest  or  western  altar.  It  was 
five  by  six  feet  and  ten  inches  deep.  [The  base]  must  have  covered  twelve 
or  fifteen  feet  in  diameter.  First  came  some  charcoal  and  ashes.  Then  a 
layer  of  mica  plates  18  by  20  inches  in  diameter.  *  *  *  Not  only  had 
the  cavity  been  entirely  filled  with  singular  and  valuable  specimens,  but 
several  bushels  had  been  heaped  about  the  edges  of  the  rim,  and  for  some 
distance  down  its  slopes.  Fires  built  above  and  below  the  contents  had 
melted  much  of  the  copper.  I  took  out  great  chunks  of  conglomerate 
mass,  composed  of  beautifully  carved  bone,  pipes,  effigies,  etc.,  all  of  which 
were  charred,  cracked,  or  cemented  together  by  half  melted  copper. 
Bear  tusks,  tortoise  shell  pendants,  bone  effigies  (some  human),  terra  cotta 
and  graphite  slate  rings,  lance  and  spear  points  of  quartz  srystal,. 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  shell  beads,  *  *  *  chalcedony  knives  in 
numbers,  *  *  *  claws,  tablets,  cylindrical  pieces  of  copper  containing 
charred  reeds,  etc.  Several  thousand  fragments  of  large  obsidian  spears 
and  knives  were  at  the  bottom.  *  *  *  ^  number  of  interesting  and 
unique  specimens  were  saved  entire,  though  most  of  them  were  broken. 
Of  the  obsidian  implements  we  secured  many  ten,  twelve,  or  fifteen  inches; 
in  length."  — W.  K.  M.,  255. 

From  one  of  the  smaller  mounds  [17,  in  the  northeast 
corner] 

"  as  many  as  3,000  sheets  [of  mica]  varying  in  size  and  thickness 
were  taken.  *  *  *  j  remember  shipping  a  barrel  and  a  soap  box  from 
this  structure,  filled  with  nothing  but  mica.  Many  fine  bone  needles,, 
mostly  broken  and  damaged  by  heat,  a  rude  altar  full  of  bones  and  ashes, 
two  or  three  hatchets  and  some  spools  of  copper,  ornaments,  shark's, 
teeth,  and  about  200  pounds  of  galena  [showing  no  marks  of  heat]  were 
taken  from  the  structure."  —  W.  K.  M.,  120. 

In  mound  23  [in  the  southeast  corner]  "  thirty-nine  skeletons  lay 
upon  the  base  line,  most  of  which  were  accompanied  by  singular  and 
unique  specimens.  The  eastern  portion  of  the  mound  was  covered  on  the 
bottom  with  small  stones.  Several  post  holes  were  observed  in  differ- 
ent portions  of  the  mound.  These  may  have  contained  timbers  8  to  10 
inches  in  diameter,  which  were  the  supports  for  a  building  of  some 
description  erected  over  the  hard  burnt  floor  of  the  mound  where  gravel 


Mound  at  the  Baum  Village  Site. 


347 


and  clay  intermixed  seemed  to  have  been  subjected  to  a  heat  sufficiently 
intense  to  form  a  cement  of  equal  toughness  to  that  of  an  ordinary  cellar 
floor.  Among  the  finds  were  various  forms  of  copper,  including  an  axe 
weighing  17  pounds;  large  shells;  pearls;  human  jaw-bones,  both  upper 
and  lower,  carved  into  ornaments ;  animal  teeth,  set  with  pearls  and 
smaller  teeth ;  pipes  of  different  patterns,  and  a  bowl,  fourteen  and  a  half 
inches  in  diameter,  cut  quite  accurately  from  a  piece  of  limestone."  — 
W.  K.  M.,  208. 

It  appears  that  around  many  of  the  skeletons  in  this  mound,  "  little 
structures  of  wood,  perhaps  three  or  four  feet  in  height  and  resembling 
small  wooden  tepees  or  conical  lodges,  were  constructed.     Although  the 


.Su/rU'tiS^ 


Section  a. 


SECJION^a, 

Figure  103  —  Cross   Sections  of  Mound  at  Baum's. 

timbers  or  poles  constituting  the  '  house  '  decayed,  yet  they  remained  in 
position  long  enough  to  form  a  hollow  about  the  remains."  Several  times 
the  horses  broke  through  the  harder  earth  above  into  these  cavities. — 
W.   K.    M.,   211. 

AT   BOURNEVILLE. 

The  mound  at  Baum's,  near  Bourneville,  shown  in  figure  103 
(B.  E.  12,  485,  figure  322),  seems  to  have  had  two  periods  of 
construction,  as  shown  by  the  two  sets  of  upright  posts,  appar- 
ently the  remains  of  houses.  The  lower  row  enclosed  a  circular 
space  36  feet  in  diameter;  they  measured,  on  an  average,  five 
inches  in  diameter  and  were  set  about  ten  inches  apart.  The 
sagging  of  the  strata  indicates  a  frame-work  of  some  sort  whose 
gradual  yielding  from  decay  or  pressure  allowed  the  superincum- 


348  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

bent  earth  to  settle  slowly  and  evenly.  The  surface  thus 
depressed  seems  to  have  been  leveled  up  before  the  other  frame 
was  erected.  Seventeen  skeletons  were  found  within  the  upright 
timbers  above  and  below;  some  ordinary  relics  were  unearthed, 
among  them  being  a  ''hollow  point  of  bone  which  appears  to 
have  been  shaped  with  a  steel  knife"  (B.  E.  12,  483  j  — an 
entirely  unnecessary  supposition,  for  the  marks  on  it  could 
have  been  easily  produced  by  the  customary  Indian  methods,  so 
far  as  may  be  judged  from  the  engraving  given.  The  object 
itself  has  been  mislaid,  unfortunately,  so  that  a  careful  examina- 
tion can  not  be  made;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  an  arrow-head 
of  deer-horn. 

NEAR    CHILLICOTHE. 

In  a  small  mound  four  miles  west  of  Chillicothe  "  we  found  that 
a  rude  enclosure  or  pen,  about  twelve  feet  square,  had  been  made  with 
poles  of  various  lengths,  some  of  them  only  reaching  to  the  corners, 
while  others  projected  four  or  five  feet  beyond  its  sides.  A  floor  had 
been  formed  within  this  pen  by  layers  of  bark  or  split  wood,  on  which 
had  been  deposited  five  bodies.  Over  them  had  been  placed  other  poles 
covered  with  a  roof  similar  to  the  floor,  on  which  had  been  cast  the  earth 
forming  the  mound.  The  entire  mass  of  wood  had  an  average  thickness 
of  twelve  inches  —  what  space  may  have  existed  between  the  floor  and  the 
roof  at  the  time  of  its  construction  cannot  be  told ;  probably  only  suffi- 
cient to  allow  room  for  the  bodies.  The  wood  at  the  time  of  the  explo- 
ration presented  the  appearance  of  ashes  having  about  as  much  consis- 
tency as  fine  earth.  *  *  *  The  skeletons  were  extended  at  full  length 
and  all  were  on  the  back  except  one.  The  first  uncovered  was  that  of  a 
young  person,  with  feet  to  the  northwest.  Among  the  bones  of  the  head 
*  *  *  were  thirty  small  shell  beads.  The  second  body  had  been  laid 
on  its  left  side,  with  its  feet  almost  at  the  exact  center  of  the  mound, 
and  head  toward  the  northwest.  The  bones  of  the  feet  we^e  lying  upon 
the  left  side  of  the  child's  head,  the  top  of  which  was  in  contact  with 
the  tibiae  of  the  adult.  No  objects  were  found  with  this  body.  The  third 
was  an  adult,  whose  feet  rested  against  the  hips  of  the  second,  its  head 
being  towards  the  northeast ;  under  the  back  was  a  mass  of  burnt  and 
broken  bones  in  soft  black  earth,  perhaps  the  remains  of  food.  *  *  * 
A  disk  of  yellow  ochre  *  *  *  a  broken  arrow-head,  a  fine  hematite 
cone,  and  a  point  of  deer  antler  [were  with  the  remains].  With  the  bones 
of  the  middle  portion  of  this  skeleton  were  intermingled  those  of  an 
infant.  On  the  forehead  [of  the  latter]  had  been  placed  several  pieces 
of  mica,  cut  in  the  form  of  a  half  crescent,  with  smooth  edges  and  rounded 
points.  Each  plate  had  several  holes  punched  in  it.  [Copper  and  shell 
beads  and  a  copper  bracelet  were  also  with  this  burial.]  The  fifth  skel- 
eton was  that  of  a  child,  with  its  head  near  the  waist  of  the  last  adult, 
and  feet  to  the  southwest.     On  its  forehead  was  a  crescentic  plate  of  mica. 


Mounds  near  Chillicothe.  349 

*     *     *     About  the  neck  were  196  beads  of  small  sea  shells. —  Moore- 
head,    Chap.    XIII. 

Mound  E,  of  the  ''Junction  Group"  (see  figure  38),  as 
described  by  Squier  and  Davis,  was  seven  feet  high  by  forty- 
five  feet  base.  At  the  bottom  was  about  one-third  of  an  altar 
on  which  lay  ''a  number  of  relics  clearly  pertaining  to  the  mound- 
builders."  The  remainder  of  the  altar  had  been  destroyed  in  the 
intrusive  burial  of  three  bodies  which  lay  extended  with  heads 
east.  Four  feet  from  the  bottom  was  a  layer  of  charcoal,  intact 
beyond  the  line  of  excavation  for  this  interment.  It  is  not  clear 
from  the  statement  of  the  authors  whether  the  three  feet  of  earth 
above  this  charcoal  layer  presented  the  same  appearance  of  dis- 
turbance as  that  below.  If  it  was  thus  displaced,  the  secondary 
grave  was  dug  much  deeper  than  Indians  are  accustomed  to 
make  them.  If  the  contrary,  then  we  have  a  case  of  intrusive 
burial  in  a  mound  by  people  who  carried  the  mound  considerably 
higher  —  in  other  words,  by  the  Mound  Builders  themselves. 
But  it  is  as  difficult  to  believe  that  the  latter  would  thus  destroy 
one  of  their  own  altars,  as  that  the  later  Indian  would  dig  down 
seven  feet  into  a  compacted  mound. 


Next  in  interest  to  the  group  at  Hopewell's  farm,  is  that 
about  three  miles  north  of  Chillicothe,  called  by  Squier  and 
Davis  "Mound  City."  This  is  shown  in  figure  35.  A  section  of 
the  first  mound  opened  by  them  at  this  place  is  given  in  figure  94. 

"  The  altar  was  perfectly  round.  *  *  ^i^  ^he  basin,  which  was. 
five  feet  in  diameter  and  nine  inches  deep,  *  *  *  ^^^s  filled  up  evenly 
with  fine  dry  ashes,  intermixed  with  which  were  some  fragments  of  pot- 
tery [and]  a  few  convex  copper  disks.  *  *  *  Above  the  deposit  of 
ashes,  and  covering  the  entire  basin,  was  a  layer  of  silvery  or  opaque 
mica,  in  sheets,  overlapping  each  other ;  upon  which,  immediately  over 
the  center  of  the  basin,  was  heaped  a  quantity  of  burned  human  bones, 
probably  the  amount  of  a  single  skeleton,  in  fragments.  The  position 
of  these  is  indicated  in  the  section.  The  layers  of  mica  and  calcined 
bones,  it  should  be  remarked,  to  prevent  misapprehension,  were  peculiar 
to  this  individual  mound,  and  were  not  found  in  any  other  of  the  class." 
—  S.  &  D.,  144. 

"  The  thickness  of  the  exterior  layer  of  gravel,  in  mounds  of  this 
class,  varies  with  the  dimensions  of  the  mound,  from  eight  to  twenty 
inches.     *     *     *     The  number  and  position  of  the   sand  strata  are  vari- 


350 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


able;  in  some  of  the  larger  mounds,  there  are  as  many  as  six  of  them, 
in  no  case  less  than  one,  most  usually  two  or  three." 

The  gravel  covering  "  in  mounds  of  this  class"  is  due  to 
two  causes.  First,  the  material  of  the  mounds  was  taken  from 
the  immediate  vicinity  in  a  small  area,  so  that  pits  were  formed 


Figure   104  —  Imaginary    Section   of   Mound  at   "Mound    City." 

reaching  below  the  soil  and  into  the  underlying  gravel,  which 
thus  naturally  came  on  top  of  the  mound;  and  secondly, 
the  sand  and  other  loose  material  with  which  the  pebbles  were 
intermingled,  was  washed  toward  the  bottom  in  course  of  time, 
leaving  the  gravel  in  much  greater  proportions  than  was  the 
case  at  the  beginning. 


i  ••.      Plan  ajidSecUon  of  Altar  /I 

I  \.  ./  i 


\. 


Figure  105  —  Altar  in  Above  Mound. 

Mound  No.  2  is  shown  in  figure  104  (S.  &  D.,  147,  fig.  31). 

"  This  mound  is  ninety  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base,  by  seven  and  a 
half  feet  high.  *  *  *  ^  shaft  six  feet  square  was  sunk  from  the  apex." 
—  S.  &  D.,  147. 

Consequently  this  section  of  ninety  feet  was  constructed 
from  a  view  which  comprises  only  one-fifteenth  of  its  entire 
length. 


'Mound  City. 


351 


The  altar  in  mound  2  is  shown  in  figure  105  (S.  &  D.,  147, 

fig.  32.) 

"  This  altar  was  a  parallelogram  of  the  utmost  regularity  as  shown 
in  the  plan  and  section.  At  its  base,  it  measures  ten  feet  in  length  by 
€ight  in  width ;  at  the  top  six  feet  by  four.    Its  height  was  eighteen  inches, 


Figure  106  —  Long  Mound  at  "  jMound  City, 


and  the  dip  of  the  basin  nine  inches.  Within  the  basin  was  a  deposit  of 
fine  ashes,  unmixed  with  charcoal,  three  inches  thick,  much  compacted 
by  the  weight  of  the  superincumbent  earth.  Among  the  ashes  were  some 
fragments  of  pottery,  also  a  few  shell  and  pearl  beads."  —  S.  &  D.,  147. 

The  most  interesting  of  the  group  at  "  Mound  City  "  and 
.one  which  is  entirely  unique  in  the  records  of  mound  explora- 


Figure  107  —  Altar  in  Long  Mound. 

tion  is  the  long  mound,  No.  3.    A  section  is  presented  in  figure 
106  (S.  &D.,  149,  fig.  34). 

"  It  is  egg-shaped  in  form,  and  measures  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  in  length,  by  fifty  and  sixty  respectively  at  its  greater  and  smaller 
ends,  and  is  eleven  feet  high.  *  *  *  Four  shafts  were  sunk  at  as 
many  different  points;  between  three  of  which,   for  a  distance  of  over 


Figure  108. 

forty  feet,  connecting  drifts  were  carried  as  indicated  in  the  plan.  *  *  * 
Although  the  altar  in  this  mound  was  not  fully  exposed,  yet  enough  was 
uncovered  to  ascertain  very  nearly  its  character  and  extent.  Forty-five 
feet  of  its  length  was  exposed,  and  in  one  place  its  entire  width,  which 
was  eight  feet  across  the  top  by  fifteen  at  the  base."  A  longitudinal  sec- 
tion of  this  altar  is  given  in  figure  107  (S.  &  D.,  150,  fig.  35),  and  a 
cross-section  in  figure  108  (same,  fig.  36).  "  Near  the  center  of  the  altar 
two  partitions,  A.  A.,  are  carried  across  it  transversely,  forming  a  minor 


352  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

basin  or  compartment,  C,  eight  feet  square.  Within  this  basin  the  relics^^ 
deposited  in  the  mound  were  placed.  The  outer  compartments  seem  to 
have  been  filled  with  earth,  previous  to  the  final  heaping  over.  *  *  * 
It  was  found  to  be  burned  to  a  depth  of  twenty-two  inches."  This  depth 
of  hardened  earth  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  "  one  altar  had  been 
built  upon  another.  *  *  *  'pj^jg  process,  as  shown  in  [the  last  figure] 
had  been  repeated  three  times.  *  *  *  The  partitions  A  A  were  con- 
structed subsequently  to  the  erection  of  the  altar,  as  is  evidenced  from 
the  fact  that  they  were  scarcely  burned  through,  while  the  altar  imme- 
diately beneath  them  was  burned  to  great  hardness."  There  was  much 
charcoal  over  the  entire  altar,  from  that  formed  by  burning  leaves  or 
straw,  to  pieces  of  wood  four  or  five  feet  long  and  -six  or  eight  inches 
thick.  A  quantity  of  pottery  and  many  implements  of  copper  and  stone 
were  deposited  on  the  altar,  intermixed  with  much  coal  and  ashes.  They 
had  all  been  subjected  to  a  strong  heat,  which  had  broken  up  most  of 
"  those  which  could  be  thus  affected  by  its  action.  *  *  *  ^  bushel  or 
two  of  fragments  "  of  spear-heads  made  of  quartz  and  manganese  garnet ; 
a  quantity  of  raw  material,  some  of  the  garnet  crystals  three  or  four 
inches  through ;  an  arrow  head  of  obsidian ;  many  of  limpid  quartz,  one  of 
them  four  inches  long ;  large  thin  pieces  of  quartz  "  shaped  like  the  blade 
of  a  knife;"  two  celts  and  more  than  twenty  small  tubes  of  copper;  a 
large  quantity  of  pottery;  two  pipes,  one  resembling  Potomac  marble,  the 
other  "  a  bold  figure  of  a  bird,  resembling  the  toucan,  cut  in  white  lime- 
stone "  —  were  the  principal  finds.  A  partially  burned  human  patella 
was  also  found  on  the  altar. —  S.  &  D.,  119-150. 

The  "toucan"  is  the  "crow"  of  Henshaw ;   see  page  608. 

In  the  altar  of  mound  4  was  a  mass  of  shells  pulverized  by  heat; 
on  that  of  mound  5  were  about  thirty  pounds  of  galena  in  fragments, 
from  two  ounces  to  three  pounds.  This  bore  slight  marks  of  heat, 
although  the  altar  was  burned  very  hard. —  S.  &  D.,  148. 

"  Mound  No.  7  had  no  altar  in  it.  It  was  much  the  largest  in  the 
enclosure,  measuring  seventeen  and  a  half  feet  in  height  by  ninety  feet 
base.  A  shaft  nine  feet  square  was  sunk  from  the  apex.  At  the  depth  of 
nineteen  feet,  at  one  side  of  the  shaft,  was  noticed  a  layer  of  silvery  mica. 
It  was  formed  of  round  sheets,  ten  inches  or  a  foot  in  diameter,  overlap- 
ping each  other  like  the  scales  of  a  fish.  This  was  only  partially  uncov- 
ered, but  enough  to  indicate  that  it  formed  a  regular  crescent  whose  entire 
length  from  horn  to  horn  could  not  have  been  less  than  twenty  feet  and 
its  greatest  width  five.  Were  we  to  yield  to  the  temptation  which  the 
mica  crescent  holds  out,  we  might  conclude  that  the  Mound  Builders 
worshipped  the  moon,  and  that  this  mound  was  dedicated,  with  unknown 
rites  and  ceremonies  to  that  luminary." —  S.  &  D.,  154,  condensed. 

Mound  No.  8  was  one  of  the  smallest  in  "  Mound  City,"  but  at  the 
same  time  one  of  the  most  valuable  as  to  its  contents.  The  altar  was 
six  feet  two  inches  in  length  by  four  feet  in  width,  with  a  small,  oval, 
secondary  depression.  "Intermixed  with  much  ashes,  were  found  not  far 
from   tzuo  hundred  pipes,   carved   in   stone,   many  pearl  and   shell  beads,, 


''Mound  City."  353 

numerous  discs,  tubes,  etc.,  of  copper,  and  a  number  of  other  ornaments 
of  copper,  ■  covered  with  silver,  etc.,  etc.  The  pipes  were  much  broken 
up  —  some  of  them  calcined  by  the  heat,  which  had  been  sufficiently 
strong  to  melt  copper,  masses  of  which  were  found  fused  together  in  the 
center  of  the  basin.  *  *  *  They  are  mostly  composed  of  a  red  por- 
phyritic  stone,  somewhat  resembling  the  pipe-stone  of  the  Coteau  des 
Prairies  excepting  that  it  is  of  great  hardness  and  interspersed  with  small 
variously  colored  granules.  The  fragments  of  this  material  which  had 
been  most  exposed  to  the  heat  were  changed  to  a  brilliant  black  color, 
resembling  Egyptian  marble.  Nearly  all  the  articles  carved  in  limestone,, 
of  which  there  had  been  a  number,  were  calcined. 

"  The  bowls  of  most  of  the  pipes  are  carved  in  miniature  figures 
of  animals,  birds,  reptiles,  etc.  All  of  them  are  executed  with  strict 
fidelity  to  nature,  and  with  exquisite  skill.  Not  only  are  the  features  of 
the  various  objects  represented  faithfully,  but  their  peculiarities  and  habits 
are  in  some  degree  exhibited.  >ii  =i«  *  The  panther,  the  bear,  the  wolf, 
the  beaver,  the  otter,  the  squirrel,  the  raccoon,  the  hawk,  the  heron,  crow, 
swallow,  buzzard,  paroquet,  toucan  and  other  indigenous  and  southern 
birds  —  the  turtle,  the  frog,  toad,  rattlesnake,  etc.,  are  recognized  at  first 


Figure  109  —  Altar  in  Mound  Near  "  Mound  City." 

glance.  But  the  most  interesting  and  valuable  in  the  list,  are  a  number 
of  sculptured  human  heads,  no  doubt  faithfully  representing  the  predomi- 
nant physical  features  of  the  ancient  people  by  whom  they  were  made. 
We  have  this  assurance  in  the  minute  accuracy  of  the  other  sculptures  of 
the  same  date."  —  S.  &  D.,  152. 

Under  the  mound  within  the  large  irregular  enclosure  just 
south  of  ''Mound  City,"  was  an  altar,  a  section  of  which  is  seen 
in  figure  109  (S.  &  D.,  156,  fig.  45). 

"  It  seems  to  have  been  formed  at  different  intervals  of  time,  as 
follows :  First,  a  circular  space,  thirteen  feet  in  diameter  and  eight  inches 
in  depth,  was  excavated  in  the  original  level  of  the  plain;  this  was  filled 
with  fine  sand,  carefully  leveled  and  compacted  to  the  utmost  degree. 
Upon  the  level  thus  formed,  which  was  perfectly  horizontal,  offerings  by 
fire  were  made ;  at  any  rate  a  continuous  heat  was  kept  up,  and  fatty  mat- 
ter of  some  sort  burned,  for  the  sand  to  the  depth  of  two  inches  is  dis- 
colored, and  to  the  depth  of  one  inch  is  burned  hard  and  black  and 
cemented  together.  The  ashes,  etc.,  resulting  from  this  operation,  were 
then  removed,  and  another  deposit  of  sand,  of  equal  thickness  with  the 
former,  was  placed  above  it,  and  in  like  manner  much  compacted.  This 
23 


354  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

was  moulded  into  the  form  represented  in  the  plan,  which  is  identical 
with  that  of  the  circular  clay  altars  already  described ;  the  basin,  in 
this  instance  measuring  seven  feet  in  diameter  by  eight  inches  in  depth. 
This  basin  was  then  carefully  paved  with  small  round  stones,  each  a 
little  larger  than  a  hen's  egg,  which  were  laid  in  with  the  utmost  pre- 
cision, fully  rivaling  the  pavior's  finest  work.  They  were  firmly  bedded 
in  the  sand  beneath  them,  so  as  to  present  a  regular  and  uniform  surface. 
Upon  the  altar  thus  constructed  was  found  a  burnt  deposit,  carefully 
covered  with  a  layer  of  sand,  above  which  was  heaped  the  superstructure 
of  the  mound.  The  deposit  consisted  of  a  thin  layer  of  carbonaceous 
matter,  intermingled  with  which  were  some  burned  human  bones,  but  so 
much  calcined  as  to  render  recognition  extremely  difficult.  Ten  well 
wrought  copper  bracelets  were  also  found,  placed  in  two  heaps,  five  in 
each,  and  encircling  some  calcined  bones  —  probably  those  of  the  arms 
upon  which  they  were  originally  worn.  Besides  these,  there  were  found 
a  couple  of  thick  plates  of  mica,  placed  upon  the  western  slope  of  the  altar. 
"  Assuming,  what  must  be  very  obvious  from  its  form  and  other 
circumstances,  that  this  was  an  altar  and  not  a  tomb,  we  are  almost  irre- 
sistibly led  to  the  conclusion,  that  human  sacrifices  were  practiced  by  the 
race  of  the  Mounds.  This  conclusion  is  sustained  by  other  facts,  which 
Jiave  already  been  presented."  —  S.  &  D.,   156. 


On  the  extensive  level  plain  to  the  north  and  northwest 
of  Chillicothe  are  ten  mounds.  The  largest  two  are  each  twenty- 
six  feet  in  height.  Seven  of  them  are  now  within  the  corporate 
limits  of  the  city.  Into  one  of  these,  having  an  elevation  of  twenty- 
six  feet,  a  few  tunnels  were  run  by  a  man  who  had  no  clear  idea 
of  what  he  was  trying  to  do,  and  could  not  decide  whether  he 
had  found  anything  or  not.  Under  another,  located  in  the  Fair 
Grounds,  similar  tunnels  revealed  a  series  of  post  holes  arranged 
in  a  circle  some  12  or  15  feet  in  diameter,  beneath  the  apex  of 
the  structure.  The  posts  which  were  placed  close  together,  were 
cut  off  square  at  the  bottom,  and  some  of  them  extended  as 
much  as  five  feet  below  the  natural  surface. — Field  Work,  VII, 

133- 

A  third,  fifteen  feet  high,   covered  a  skeleton  placed  between  two 

layers  of  bark.     With  it  were  a  tube  six  inches  long,  No.  2  in  figure  [189 

(S.  &  D.,  122)]  and  a  gorget,  both  of  limestone;    and  two  bear's  teeth. 

A  small  stick  of  timber  lay  at  the  head  and  another  at  the  feet,  presum- 

•ably  to  hold  the  bark  in  place.—  S.  &  D.,  164. 

The  other  four,  which  are  crossed  by  the  corporation  line, 

"  form  a  connected  group,  being  built  in  such  a  manner  that  the  ad- 
jacent edges  unite  several  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ground.     All  were 


Mounds  in  Chillicothe.  355 

opened.  The  first,  with  a  height  of  13  feet,  was  65  feet  in  diameter. 
At  the  base  we  found  under  the  central  portion  of  the  mound 
a  floor  of  bark  or  split  wood  on  which  had  been  built  a 
rectangular  enclosure  of  small  logs  with  an  inside  measurement 
of  seven  by  eleven  feet.  In  it  were  the  remains  of  single  indi- 
vidual. The  lower  jaw  and  bones  of  the  hands  were  covered  with  a 
coating  of  red  ochre  of  uniform  thickness,  while  the  surrounding  earth 
and  the  other  bones  showed  no  trace  of  the  coloring  matter.  The  pen 
was  about  18  inches  high,  the  logs  forming  it  being  4  or  5  inches  in 
diameter,  and  extending  out  for  two  or  three  feet  at  the  corners.  The 
floor  and  covering  (it  could  not  be  determined  whether  the  material  was 
bark,  or  split  wood  like  puncheons)  were  each  about  three  inches  thick. 
The  logs  were  of  some  soft  wood  like  poplar  or  willow.  Nothing  what- 
ever had  been  buried  with  the  skeleton.  When  the  vault  was  completed 
the  mound  was  built  to  a  height  of  nine  feet  with  a  very  fine  dark  sand 
which  had  become  so  compact  as  almost  to  equal  mortar  in  hardness, 
and  was  impervious  to  water.  The  mound  was  completed  with  ordinary 
soil. 

"  The  second  mound  was  fifty  feet  in  diameter  and  seven  feet  high. 
It  had  been  opened  by  Squier  and  Davis  and  by  them  reported  to  con- 
tain '  the  skeleton  of  a  girl  enveloped  in  bark.'  The  skeleton  they  ex- 
humed was  not  '  enveloped  in  bark '  but  placed  between  two  layers  of 
split  wood  which  extended  several  feet  beyond  their  line  of  excavation 
on  every  side,  and  retained  its  texture  to  a  degree  that  admitted  of  no 
doubt  on  the  subject.  Beech,  sycamore,  and  black  walnut  were  among 
the  fragments.  The  feet  and  skull  of  the  skeleton  had  not  been  touched 
by  Squier  and  Davis,  although  they  had  disturbed  all  the  other  bones, 
even  taking  away  the  lower  jaw.  Neither  did  they  reach  another  skel- 
eton which  lay  parallel  to  the  first  and  not  more  than  a  foot  from  it. 

[Additional  evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  these  explorers 
conducted  their  operations  is  presented  on  page  360.] 

The  third  mound  resembled  the  first  in  construction  —  a  core  of 
very  fine  sand  seven  feet  in  height  covered  by  six  feet  of  soft  muddy  clay. 
In  a  little  pocket  at  the  bottom  near  the  center  of  the  mound,  we  found 
a  small  animal  bone,  four  mussel  shells,  a  few  flakes  of  charcoal,  and 
about  a  pint  of  ashes.  There  was  nothing  else  in  the  entire  mound." — 
Moorehead,  Chap.  XIII,  condensed. 

"  The  fourth  and  largest  of  this  group  was  twenty  feet  high,  and  up 
to  the  time  of  our  exploration  had  never  been  disturbed;  so  that  it  had 
retained  its  original  dimensions.  Nevertheless,  Squier  and  Davis  report 
its  elevation  as  thirty  feet. 

"  It  contained  a  stratum  or  mass  of  charcoal  at  least  fifty  feet 
across  and  in  some  places  fully  three  feet  thick.  In  it  were  many  logs 
and  branches  that  had  been  cut  oflf  with  stone  axes,  the  marks  being 
quite  distinct.  Some  of  them  were  nearly  a  foot  across,  while  those 
with  a  diameter  from  four  to  eight  inches  were  abundant.  [Two  of  these 
are  shown  in  figure   110],     There  were  also   a   great   number   of  poles 


356 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


or  saplings,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  swamp  grass  and  weeds.  In 
this  charcoal  the  grain  of  the  wood  was  preserved  to  a  remarkable 
degree;  so  much  so  that  we  could  readily  recognize  among  it  black 
and  white  walnut,  dogwood,  elm,  hickory,  ash,  maple,  willow,  red  and 
white  oak,  redbud,  honey-locust,  cotton-wood,  chestnut  and  basswood. 
This  mound,  also,  had  a  core  of  the  fine  sand,  so  that  no  water  pene- 
trated to  the  charcoal  where  it  had  not  been  disturbed;  and  for  this 
reason  it  was  almost  unchanged  from  its  natural  condition.  Altogether 
we  threw  out  not  less  than  one  hundred  bushels  of  it.  This  amount 
refers   only  to  the  clean  charcoal;   there  was  a  great  deal   more  mixed 


Figure  110  —  Wooden   Pick,    and  Cut  Logs  from   Mound  at   Chillicothe. 

with  earth,  besides  which  the  layer  extended  to  an  unknown  distance 
beyond  our  trench  on  two  sides. 

"  Eight  holes  or  pockets  were  found  near  the  center  from  12  to  16 
inches  across,  and  reaching  well  down  into  the  sand,  which  is  found 
under  the  soil  at  a  depth  of  two  to  three  feet.  All  were  filled  with 
loose  earth,  and  the  sand  which  had  been  taken  from  the  bottom  was 
spread  out  in  a  smooth,  even  layer  above  them.  They  contained  no 
traces  of  wood  or  anything  else  to  indicate  the  purpose  for  which  they 
were  dug. 

"Just  north  of  the  center,  on  the  original  surface,  the  earth  in 
a  space  of  4  to  6  feet  was  burned  until  to  a  depth  of  six  inches  it  was 
hard  as  a  brick.  Over  this  lay  a  mass  of  white  ashes.  After  the  fire 
had   died  down  a  hut  or  pen  had  been  constructed  by   setting   logs   or 


Mounds  in  Chillicothe.  357 

posts  into  a  narrow  trench,  like  a  stockade.  [One  of  the  wooden  tools, 
preserved  by  charring,  used  in  digging  this  trench,  is  shown  at  the  left 
in  figure  110.]  These  were  set  close  together,  so  that  no  opening  was 
left.  The  stumps  of  these  posts,  some  charred,  others  decayed  below 
the  ground,  were  still  in  the  trench.  Above  them  a  hut  10  by  12  feet 
had  been  made  of  logs  6  to  11  inches  in  diameter,  crossed  at  the  corners 
as  in  the  ordinary  mannner  of  building  a  log  cabin.  All  were  now 
converted  into  charcoal,  and  had  settled  down  until  each  side  of  the 
pen  formed  a  compact  mass  about  three  feet  in  breadth  and  thickness. 

"  A  remarkable  discovery  was  made  in  this  mound.  All  the  remains 
described  had  been  covered  with  fine  sand  as  above  mentioned  to  a  total 
height  of  about  twelve  feet.  After  the  sand  had  been  piled  up,  it  was 
left  undisturbed  for  several  years,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  we  found 
on  its  top  impressions  left  by  the  stumps  of  saplings,  some  of  them  four 
or  five  inches  in  diameter,  the  holes  left  by  the  roots  being  in  some 
cases  easily  traceable  by  means  of  the  darker  color.  As  there  was  no 
trace  of  the  trunks  in  the  earth  above,  these  must  have  been  cut  or 
broken  off.  This  mound  had  then  been  opened  from  the  top ;  the  exca- 
vation reached  a  foot  into  the  charcoal  stratum.  At  the  bottom  of  this 
excavation  were  laid  several  white  oak  logs,  some  of  them  more  than  a 
foot  in  diameter.  Wood  or  bark  was  placed  on  them  to  form  a  floor, 
on  which  lay  three  skeletons  side  by  side.  More  wood  or  bark  had  then 
been  placed  over  them.  To  the  west,  at  a  little  higher  level,  were 
three  other  skeletons.  The  hole  had  then  been  filled  and  the  moUnd 
completed  to  its  present  height  with  soil,  the  excavated  sand  being 
left  where  it  had  been  thrown,  on  the  original  slope.  Immediately 
beneath  these  logs,  on  the  charcoal,  lay  a  skeleton.  Whether  this  had  been 
deposited  at  the  same  time  as  those  above  it,  or  placed  here  when  the 
sand  mound  was  first  built,  we  cannot  tell.  A  few  inches  lower  than  this 
skeleton  was  a  very  peculiar  deposit — a  mass  five  feet  long,  from  12  to  16 
inches  wide,  having  an  elliptical  section  four  inches  thick  at  the  middle, 
and  composed  almost  entirely  of  small  fragments  of  human  bones. 
They  had  been  burned  until  nearly  destroyed,  and  were  mingled  in  utter 
confusion  as  though  hastily  gathered  up  from  the  place  of  cremation. 
Some  belonged  to  the  frame  of  an  adult,  while  others  were  from  the  remains 
of  a  child  not  more  than  half  grown.  All  had  been  carried  in  from  the 
outside.  Thrown  upon  them  after  they  were  deposited,  was  about  half 
of  the  top  of  a  human  skull,  bearing  no  traces  of  fire.  It  had  evidently 
been  used  as  a  cup  or  vessel  before  being  broken.  All  the  thicker  por- 
tions of  the  bone  had  been  cut  away,  and  the  edge  thus  left  carefully 
trimmed,  leaving  a  smooth  rim  entirely  around  it."  —  JMoorehead,  Chap. 
XIV,   condensed. 

Another  such  find  has  been  recorded: 

"  A  cup  made  from  a  human  skull  was  exhumed  *  *  *  near 
Brookville,   Indiana."  —  Fletcher,   6,   note. 

The  second  of  the  largest  two  mounds  was  entirely  removed  by  ^Nlr.  W.  C.  Mills, 
curator  of  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society.  The  structure  and  contents 
were  of  much  interest,  and  will  be  fully  described  in  a  later  report  of  the  Society. 


358  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


On  the  high  terrace  east  of  the  Scioto  at  Chillicothe  stood  a 
mound  eight  feet  in  height.  "  For  a  space  of  twelve  feet  on  every  side 
of  the  center,  the  earth  had  been  burned  quite  hard,  and  of  a  bright  red 
color,  forming  a  floor  upon  which  rested  the  remains  of  fourteen  adults 
and  one  child."  Many  specimens  of  aboriginal  art  were  found  among 
the  bones  "  The  bodies  had  been  covered  with  a  layer  of  charcoal  fully 
a  foot  in  thickness;  in  this  were  pieces  of  a  size  to  show  that  logs  at 
least  six  inches  through  had  been  burned.  The  charcoal  was  piled  over 
the  entire  space  included  by  the  burnt  earth,  and  had  settled  down  until 
the  bones  were  covered  and  surrounded  with  it."  "  At  a  point  seven 
feet  from  the  margin,  on  the  bottom  of  the  mound,  was  a  small  amount 
of  black  earth,  containing  over  290  pieces  of  pottery,  the  fragments  of 
vessels  which  had  been  perfect  when  deposited,  but  had  afterward  beent 
crushed  by  the  weight  of  the  earth  resting  upon  them."  —  Moorehead, 
148. 

On  the  farm  of  Mr.  Janes,  two  miles  east  of  Chillicothe,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  river,  was  a  mound  measuring  50  by  95  feet  at  the  base,, 
and  13  feet  high.  A  short  distance  away  was  a  pond  which  was  probably 
formed  by  obtaining  here  the  earth  for  the  mound.  "At  twenty  feet 
from  the  margin,  upon  the  bottom  of  the  mound,  we  came  to  a  stratum, 
three  inches  thick,  of  ashes  and  burnt  bones,  which  extended  eighteen 
feet  [east  and  west]  and  more  than  twenty  feet  [which  was  the  width  of 
the  trench]  in  length.  Some  squirrel  and  bird  bones  were  found,  but 
most  of  the  mass  was  so  broken  and  burned  that  the  character  of  the 
remains  could  not  be  determined.  *  *  *  On  the  bottom,  at  the  center, 
we  found  the  skeleton  of  a  child  not  more  than  ten  years  of  age.  By 
the  neck  were  119  beads,  of  small  marine  shells  perforated  at  the  apex. 
Six  feet  above  these  remains  was  found  the  partial  skeleton  of  a  man 
almost  a  giant  in  size.  It  was  not  an  intrusive  burial  for  the  ground 
above  it  was  undisturbed.  Neither  had  the  construction  of  the  mound 
ceased  at  this  height  for  any  appreciable  period,  for  there  was  no  line  of 
demarkation  between  the  earth  above  it  and  that  below,  such  as  would 
result  from  the  growth  of  grass  or  weeds  had  any  considerable  time 
elapsed.  *  *  *  The  death  of  this  individual  had  occurred  a  consid- 
erable time  before  the  interment  of  the  bones ;  for  not  only  are  many  of 
them  absent,  but  those  present  are  not  in  their  proper  order.  *  *  * 
The  bones  are  unusually  large  and  heavy.  The  breadth  across  the 
shoulders  with  the  bones  correctly  placed,  was  nineteen  inches.  The 
only  relics  found  with  it  were  forty  shells  by  the  right  wrist.  *  *  * 
The  skull  of  a  wolf  [or  dog]  *  *  *  and  almost  the  entire  frame 
work  of  another  were  found  ten  feet  apart,  two  feet  higher  than  the 
adult's  skeleton."  —  Moorehead,   151,  et  seq. 


In  Chillicothe,  beneath  a  mound  25  feet  high,  was  a  deposit  of  ashes 
and  charcoal  six  or  eight  feet  square  and  from  six  inches  to  a  foot  thick. 


The  Harness  Mound.  SSQ- 

In  this  were  fragments  of  human  bones  almost  destroyed  by  heat ;  a 
stone  celt,  the  only  object  of  this  character  found  by  them  in  a  mound; 
copper  ornaments ;  and  a  number  of  stones — sienite  and  other  hard  mate- 
rial. The  mound  was  begun  while  the  fire  was  active,  as  the  earth  above 
was  burned.—  S.  &  D.,  165. 

>j;  >|;  ^  Hi  H^ 

Six  miles  below  Chillicothe  under  a  mound  twenty-two  feet  high 
and  ninety  feet  in  diameter,  was  a  vault  nine  feet  long,  seven  feet  wide 
(outside  measure)  and  twenty  inches  high,  constructed  of  logs.  Tha 
bottom  was  covered  with  bark  or  puncheons.  Decayed  fragments  of  a 
skeleton  were  on  this  floor,  the  head  to  the  west.  About  the  neck  were 
several  hundred  shell  and  tusk  beads.  The  vault  had  been  covered  with 
timber  of  some  sort. —  S.  &  D.,  162. 

In  figure  111  (S.  &  D.,  fig.  50)  is  reproduced  their  drawings 
which  shows  how  they  reached  this  vault.  The  mound  is  much 
smaller  than  the  figures  given  in  the  text ;  in  fact,  the  amount  of 
earth  composing  it,  if  built  up  on  a  base  of  ninety  feet  in  diam- 
eter, would  not  exceed  ten  feet  in  height. 

AT  harness's. 
In  figure  112    (S.  &.  D.,   178,  fig.  6^.)    is  reproduced  the 
illustration  by  Squier  and  Davis  of  the  large  mound  at  Har- 
ness's or  "  Liberty  Township." 

"  The  surface  of  the  mound  was  covered  with  the  layer  of  pebbles 
and  coarse  gravel  already  mentioned  as  characterizing  the  mounds  of 
the  first  class  [altar  mounds]  but  the  sand  strata  were  absent.  *  *  * 
It  is  irregular  oval  in  form,  and  is  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  long,  ninety 
feet  broad  at  its  larger  end,  and  twenty  feet  in  height.  Excavations  were 
made  at  the  points  indicated  in  the  section.  The  one  toward  the  right  or 
smaller  end  of  the  mound  disclosed  an  enclosure  of  timber,  eight  feet 
square,  and  similar,  in  all  respects,  to  those  found  in  the  sepulchral 
mounds,  except  that,  in  this  instance,  posts  eight  inches  in  diameter  had 
been  planted  at  the  outer  corners,  as  if  to  sustain  the  structure.  These 
posts  had  been  inserted  eighteen  inches  into  the  original  level  or  floor 
of  the  mound.  *  *  *  Within  this  chamber  *  *  *  ^  skeleton  partly 
burned  was  found,  and  with  it  a  thin  copper  plate  *  *  *  also  a  large 
pipe.  [This  is  shown  in  figure  113  (S.  &  D.,  179,  fig.  68)].  *  *  *  The 
second  excavation,  (B)  was  made  at  the  larger  end  of  the  mound,  some- 
what to  one  side  of  the  center,  at  a  spot  marked  by  a  depression  in  the 
surface.  At  the  depth  of  twenty  feet  was  found  an  altar  of  clay  of  exceed- 
ing symmetry.  This  was  *  *  *  surrounded  by  an  enclosure  in  all 
respects  similar  to  the  one  above  described,  except  that  the  timbers  had 
been  less  in  size.  A  fine  carbonaceous  deposit,  resembling  burned  leaves, 
was  found  within  the  altar."  Several  large  bone  perforators  were  found 
around  the  altar.  The  floor,  so  far  as  exposed,  was  of  clay,  perfectly 
level,  and  burned  hard.—  S.  &  D.,  178-80. 


360 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


Figure  111  -  Section  of  Mound  Six  Miles  South  of  Chillicothe. 


Figure  112  —  Plan  and  Section  of  the  Harness  Mound    (S.   &  D.). 


Figure  IIS  —  Pipe   from  Harness  Mound. 


The  Harness  Mound.  361 

Their  work  in  this  mound  was  either  carelessly  done  or 
imperfectly  reported,  as  it  does  not  at  all  agree  with  reports  of 
later  explorers.  There  is  no  layer  of  gravel  on  top  of  the  mound, 
except  such  as  remains  after  most  of  the  earth  deposited  there 
had  washed  off,  leaving  a  residue.     The  cut,  also,  is  incorrect. 

According  to  Putnam, 

''The  Harness  mound  is  160  feet  long,  from  80  to  90  wide,  and 
from  13  to  18  feet  high.  About  forty  feet  from  the  center,  at  the  northern 
portion,  we  discovered  the  first  of  the  burial  chambers,  of  which  we  after- 
ward found  a  dozen  in  all.  These  chambers  were  made  by  placing  logs, 
from  five  to  six  inches  in  diameter,  on  the  clay  which  forms  the  lowest 
layer  of  the  mound,  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  enclosures  six  to  seven 
feet  in  length  and  from  two  to  three  in  width  and  about  a  foot  in  height. 
In  these  the  body  was  placed,  evidently  wrapped  in  garments,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  charred  cloth  found  in  several  of  the  chambers.  In  two 
instances  the  skeletons  were  found  extended  at  full  length  within  the 
chambers.  In  the  other  chambers  the  bodies  had  been  burnt  on  the 
spot.  It  was  evident  that  these  chambers  were  covered  by  little  mounds 
of  gravel  and  clay,  and  that  in  those  where  the  burning  had  taken  place, 
the  covering  of  earth  was  made  before  the  body  was  consumed  [that  is, 
before  the  incineration  was  completed].  The  burials  and  cremations 
were  not  all  made  at  the  same  time.  After  all  these  little  mounds  had 
been  made,  earth  was  brought  from  different  places  about  and  heaped 
over  all.  This  was  then  covered  with  a  thin  layer  of  gravel  and  sur- 
rounded by  stones,  thus  forming  a  large  mound.  Squier  and  Davis 
thought  they  had  found  an  '  altar  '  and  mention  the  burnt  chamber,  which 
they  really  found,  as  such.  After  we  had  abandoned  this  mound  several 
school  boys  dug  two  pits  in  the  mound,  and  took  out  more  objects  from 
one  of  their  pits  than  we  found  in  all  the  rest  of  the  mound."  —  Putnam, 
Harness,  216,  et  seq.,  condensed. 

Later,   Moorehead  continued  the  explorations. 

"  We  first  cleared  out  the  end  of  the  trench  abandoned  by  Professor 
Putnam,  and  measuring  the  mound  thence  to  its  end,  ascertained  the  dis- 
tance to  be  about  eighty  feet,  at  least  sixty  of  which  should  be  exca- 
vated. We  started  in  with  a  trench  some  thirty  feet  in  width,  being  a 
little  wider  than  the  excavation  he  had  conducted.  We  soon  ascertained 
that  burials  followed  each  other  pretty  much  the  same  distance  apart 
on  either  side  of  the  mound,  and  that  there  were  few  burials  in  the 
main  or  central  portion.  Most  of  the  burials  in  these  rows  occupied 
little  domes  or  pits,  varying  from  three  to  five  feet  in  diameter  and 
the  same  in  height.  In  the  end  which  we  explored  were  a  total  of 
twenty-nine  interments,  but  two  of  which  were  uncremated  skeletons,  a 
child  and  an  adult.  All  .he  others  were  more  or  less  burned.  Nearly 
all  the  skeletons  were  on  little  raised  platforms  of  burned  earth,  varying  in 
height  from  four  to  ten  inches.     The  platforms  were  usually  about  two 


362  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

by  three  feet.  Such  reHcs  as  accompanied  the  remains  were  placed  in 
no  special  order  and  many  of  them  were  partly  burned  up.  The  loose- 
ness of  the  earth  above  the  skeletons,  or  the  little  domes  to  which  we 
have  referred,  is  probably  due  to  small  structures  of  poles  having  been 
built  about  the  remains.  The  supports  remained  in  position  sufficiently 
long  for  the  earth  to  become  packed,  and  after  their  decay  just  enough 
earth  fell  upon  the  remains  to  cover  them  loosely.  Frequently  there 
was  a  space  of  about  a  foot  between  the  top  of  the  dome  and  the  loose 
earth  below."  —  Field  Work,  V.,  222,  condensed. 

PIKE    COUNTY. 

About  thirty  mounds  in  this  county  have  been  carefully 
examined  by  the  writer.  On  account  of  the  diversity  of  structure 
observed  within  this  limited  area,  a  tolerably  full  account  of  them 
is  here  presented.  Some  were  absolutely  barren  of  contents,  giv- 
ing no  clue  that  would  aid  in  determining  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  built;  some  others  contained  only  fragmentary  bones 
unaccompanied  by  any  relics,  and  apparently  pertaining  to  a  rather 
hasty  or  careless  burial.     Such  as  these  will  receive  no  mention. 

In  every  case  the  central  point  of  the  mound  was  ascer- 
tained as  nearly  as  possible,  and  all  horizontal  measurements  cal- 
culated from  it;  vertical  measurements  are  from  the  level  of  the 
original  surface  earth.  Frequently,  however,  the  highest  point 
of  the  structure  was  several  feet  to  one  side  of  what  was  clearly 
intended  to  be  the  principal  feature  of  the  tumulus.  This  is 
often  due  in  some  measure  to  erosion  or  cultivation,  but  more 
frequently  to  the  fact  that  the  builders,  probably  through  ig- 
norance or  carelessness,  made  it  so. 

The  most  northern  mound  opened  stood  close  to  the  north 
line  of  the  corporation  of  Waverly,  the  county  seat;  this  will 
be  called  No.  i,  and  the  others  will  be  numbered  in  the  order 
of  their  position  from  here  to  the  south  line  of  the  county.  There 
are  several  mounds  north  of  the  one  first  described,  but  the 
owners  of  the  land  on  which  they  stand  would  not  allow  them, 
to  be  opened. 

Mound  No.  i. —  This  measured  eighty  feet  in  diameter  at 
the  base,  and  thirteen  feet  high  above  the  surrounding  surface. 
A  trench  ten  feet  in  width  was  carried  in  from  the  south  side. 
The  structure  was  composed  of  very  hard-packed,  dry  sand^ 
with  a  slight  mixture  of  clay,  brought  from  a  low  ridge  that 
lies  a  few  rods  to  the  north  of  the  mound.     All  below  the  upper 


Mounds  near  Waverly.  363- 

two  feet  could  be  loosened  only  with  a  heavy  pick  wielded  by 
stout  muscles.  This  earth  had  been  piled  directly  on  the  orig- 
inal surface  level,  whose  characteristic  grayish  color,  due  to  the 
decay  of  old  sod  and  roots,  extended  from  four  to  six  inches 
downward  and  rested  conformably  upon  the  yellow  sandy  subsoil, 
just  as  in  the  field  around. 

About  thirty  feet  from  the  center  began  a  number  of  streaks 
of  sand,  darker  and  much  harder  than  that  of  the  mass  in  which 
they  occurred;  they  were  very  tortuous,  though  the  general 
direction  was  horizontal.  They  were  nowhere  over  an  inch  in 
thickness,  and  as  the  center  was  approached  become  more  and 
more  lenticular  in  outline,  running  around  or  enclosing  the 
lighter  sand  in  small  patches.  Evidently  they  were  due  to  se- 
gregation of  certain  components  of  the  sand  around  the  little 
masses  or  flattened  piles  where  each  laborer  had  cast  his  basket- 
load  of  earth.  At  twenty-four  feet  out  it  seemed  that  a  trench 
or  gutter  had  been  dug  to  a  depth  of  sixteen  inches  long  before 
the  mound  was  begun ;  for  the  dumped  earth  curved  down  into 
it,  resuming  the  usual  level  on  the  other  side.  Immediately  within 
this,  or  twenty  feet  from  the  center,  were  found  five  holes  nearly 
in  a  straight  line  across  the  trench.  Measuring  from  the  west- 
ern one,  which  was  partially  under  the  west  wall,  the  distance  to 
the  center  of  the  others  was  three  and  one-half,  five,  eight  and 
nine  and  one-half  feet.  They  were  from  twelve  to  sixteen 
inches  deep  and  about  eight  inches  across.  A  few  fragments  of 
bone  were  in  the  western  one,  some  charcoal  in  the  east  and 
middle  ones ;  nothing  in  the  others  except  loose,  dark  earth. 
These  holes  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  mounds  of  the 
Scioto  valley;    their  object  is  problematical. 

At  eighteen  feet  out,  ten  feet  from  the  bottom,  was  a 
hole  with  cavities  branching  out  from  it,  the  largest  reaching 
toward  the  west  or  down  the  slope  from  the  main  hole.  Plainly 
this  was  the  remains  of  a  stump  and  its  roots  and  proves  that 
the  work  was  stopped  at  this  point  for  several  years,  as  the 
earth  w^as  solid  above  and  the  hole  was  such  as  would  be  left 
by  a  tree  five  or  six  inches  in  diameter,  cut  away  when  the  work 
was  resumed. 

At  sixteen  feet  out,  ten  feet  from  the  bottom,  were  two  ex- 
tended skeletons,  as  close  together  as  they  would  lie,  with  heads 
southwest.     The  earth  about  them  was  a  deep  black  in  places^ 


364  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

as  if  from  decayed  organic  matter ;  but  most  of  the  larger  bones, 
so  far  as  they  could  be  examined,  were  covered  with  a  dull-red 
powder  which  took  on  a  waxy  appearance  when  worked  up  with 
a  knife  blade  upon  a  hard  surface.  None  of  it  was  observed  in 
the  earth  surrounding  the  bones.  The  skeletons  were  about  six 
feet  two  inches  and  five  feet  ten  inches  in  length,  but  the  bones 
of  the  head  and  feet  were  so  displaced  that  exact  measurement 
was  impossible. 

At  fifteen  feet  out,  on  the  west  side  of  the  trench,  began  a 
streak  resting  on  the  undisturbed  surface.  It  was  somewhat 
darker  than  the  earth  immediately  above  or  below  it,  and  con- 
tained some  small  fragments  of  charcoal.  Two  feet  from  the 
edge  of  this,  above  it,  began  a  layer  of  clean,  yellow,  sandy  earth, 
evidently  the  subsoil  of  the  field.  Within  a  foot  this  increased  to 
a  thickness  of  five  inches,  gradually  running  across  the  face  of 
the  trench  with  a  thickness  of  three  to  five  inches  to  the  east  side, 
at  which  it  ceased.  At  ten  feet  out,  near  the  middle  of  the  trench, 
and  under  this  yellow  sand,  the  earth  was  reddened  over  a  space 
of  eighteen  inches  to  the  depth  of  an  inch,  from  a  fire  which  was 
made  here  before  the  mound  was  commenced. 

At  twelve  feet  from  the  center  a  hole  had  been  dug  to  a 
depth  of  five  feet.  It  was  almost  uniform  in  diameter  —  about 
seven  inches  —  to  the  bottom,  and  terminated  in  a  blunt  point 
as  if  due  to  a  post  that  had  been  roughly  burned  or  cut  off.  It 
was  entirely  filled  with  loose,  dark  earth,  resembling  garden 
mold.  It  required  great  patience  on  the  part  of  the  aboriginal 
excavator,  with  a  pointed  stick  or  piece  of  antler  as  his  only 
tool,  to  dig  such  a  hole  in  ground  as  compact  as  the  surface  of 
a  traveled  road. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  trench,  ten  feet  out,  was  a  little 
pile  of  burned  bones  with  some  charcoal ;  this  lay  near  the  edge 
of  a  fire-bed,  having  a  regular  elliptical  outline.  The  latter  ex- 
tended thirteen  feet  northwestward  from  the  east  margin  of  the 
trench,  with  a  maximum  breadth  of  five  feet.  Beneath  this, 
at  eight  feet  out  and  three  feet  from  the  east  face,  was  a  hole 
about  eight  by  ten  inches  in  its  two  diameters  and  twenty  inches 
deep,  filled  with  very  loose,  dark  earth  in  which  were  two  or 
three  small  fragments  of  charcoal.  A  foot  nearer  the  center 
and  three  feet  west  from  this  hole  was  another  ten  inches  in 
diameter  and  sixteen  inches  deep,  the  sides  and  bottom  rough 


Mounds  near  Waverly.  365 

as  if  it  had  been  gouged  out  with  a  stick  or  horn.  It  was  filled 
with  clean,  white  ashes,  mixed  with  some  charcoal,  and  packed 
in  so  hard  as  to  be  difficult  to  remove  with  a  trowel. 

Five  feet  out  appeared  a  loose,  black  earth,  evidently  the 
mucky  soil  from  the  creek  bottom-land  near  by.  It  was  piled 
as  steep  as  such  earth  could  be  made  to  lie,  to  the  height  of  five 
and  a  half  feet,  and  the  upper  surface  covered  with  a  thin  layer 
of  charcoal.  It  proved  to  be  the  covering  of  a  grave  constructed 
in  the  following  manner: — 

A  hole  measuring  ten  feet  east  and  west  by  nearly  six  feet 
north  and  south,  rectangular  in  form,  except  that  the  corners 
were  somewhat  rounded,  had  been  dug  to  a  depth  of  about 
eighteen  inches.  The  bottom  was  irregular,  as  though  exca- 
vated with  rude  tools,  and  was  a  little  deeper  at  the  middle 
than  toward  the  sides;  the  edges  were  not  vertical,  but  slanted 
inward  a  little  at  the  bottom.  Lying  close  to  the  north  side  of 
this  was  a  man's  skeleton,  five  feet  nine  inches  long,  extended 
on  the  back,  head  west,  left  hand  lying  on  the  pelvis,  right  arm 
bent  and  lying  across  the  stomach.  The  teeth  were  very  little 
worn ;  five  or  six  of  them  were  slightly  touched  by  decay,  but 
otherwise  they  were  solid,  clean  and  white.  At  his  right  side 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  grave,  was  the  skeleton,  five  feet  four 
inches  in  length,  of  a  woman  lying  extended  on  the  back,  with  the 
left  hand  under  the  pelvis  of  the  other.  All  the  teeth  were  much 
worn,  some  of  them  entirely  below  the  enamel.  The  two  lower, 
middle  incisors  were  nearly  cut  in  two  at  the  neck;  they  looked 
as  if  some  sort  of  fine  cutting  instrument  had  been  forced  between 
them  and  sawed  back  and  forth  horizontally  until  only  a  thin 
remnant  of  enamel  at  the  outer  margins  held  the  crown  and  root 
together.  The  skulls  were  both  in  an  excellent  state  of  preser- 
vation, owing  to  the  fact  that  they  were  completely  imbedded  in 
the  above-mentioned  bed  of  ashes,  which  extended  across  the 
upper  portions  of  the  skeletons  to  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
grave.  A  front  and  side  view  of  each  is  given  in  figures  114  and 
T15,  and  116  and  117.  The  lower  jaws  and  most  of  the  teeth 
were  lost  after  they  reached  their  last  owner.  Some  fragments 
of  bone  and  a  piece  of  black  flint  knife  were  found  in  the  ash- 
bed.  A  lining  of  wood  had  been  placed  around  the  margin  of 
the  grave ;  what  remained  of  it  looked  more  like  ashes  than  like 
wood.     The  bottom  of  the  grave  was  covered  with  a  layer  of 


366 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


ashes;  above  this  was  a  single  thickness  of  bark  on  which  the 
bodies  were  placed,  without  any  covering  or  protection  from  the 


Figure  114  —  Front  View  of  Skull  from  Waverly  Mound. 

black  earth,  which  had  been  piled  directly  on  them  and  extended 
a  few  inches  beyond  the  grave  on  every  side.  The  large  mound 
had  been  built  over  and   around   this.     There   was  no  partic- 


Mounds  near  Waverly.  367 

tilar  arrangement  of  material  in  the  tumulus ;  it  looked  more  as 
if  various  parties  had  worked  as  best  suited  their  convenience, 
throwing  the  earth  wherever  they  wished  and  gradually  running 
the  different  masses  into  one  another  until  the  work  was  com- 


Figure  115  —  Side  View  of  Skull  in  Figure  114. 

pleted.     If  a  shaft  had  been  sunk  from  the  top,  there  would 
have  been  an  appearance  of  "stratification." 

Two  and  a  half  feet  from  the  bottom,  at  the  center,  was  a 
decayed  skull ;  a  few  fragments  of  bone  were  found  at  intervals 
to  the  east  of  it,  as  if  the  body  had  been  interred  there.  No 
relics  of  any  sort  were  found  during  the  excavation,  except  a 


868 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


copper  bracelet,  which  had  apparently  been  lost  by  one  of  the 
workers  when  the  mound  was  about  half  finished. 


Figure  116  —  Front  View  of  Skull  from  Waverly  Mound. 


No.  2. —  This  had  been  cultivated  for  many  years,  having 
now  a  diameter  of  ninety  and  a  height  of  three  feet.  At  various 
places  below  its  bottom  were  holes  filled  with  loose,  dark  earth, 


Mounds  near  Waverly.  369 

some  of  them  dug,  others  due  to  the  decay  of  roots  and  stumps 
antedating  the  mound.  Near  the  center  were  two  skeletons  of 
medium  size,  lying  a  foot  apart,  with  heads  toward  the  east.  The 
left  arm  of  the  one  to  the  south  lay  on  a  thin  stratum  of  ashes 


Figure  117  —  Side  View  of  Skull  in  Figure  116. 

and  bone,  much  burned  and  cemented  together  until  almost  as 
hard  as  stone ;  it  covered  a  space  of  one  by  two  feet.  The  feet 
of  the  skeleton  lay  on  hard-burned,  undisturbed  earth,  from  which 
the  ashes  had  been  carefully  removed.  The  lower  jaw  was  nar- 
row, with  a  prominent  chin  and  the  teeth  much  crowded;  the 
24 


S70  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

tipper  jaw  was  decidedly  prognathous.  The  head  of  the  second 
skeleton  was  two  feet  farther  east  than  that  of  the  first,  and  rested 
-on  a  fire-bed ;  near  its  skull  were  found  fragments  of  bones  of  a 
very  young  child.  The  fire-beds  at  the  head  and  feet  of  these  two 
were  each  about  four  feet  across ;  another,  north  of  them,  was 
six  feet  across,  and  the  earth  beneath  it  was  burned  red  to  a 
depth  of  four  inches;  none  of  them  was  regular  in  shape.  On 
these  bodies  and  ash-beds,''  over  a  space  of  some  fourteen  feet  in 
diameter,  earth  had  been  deposited  to  the  thickness  of  a  foot  at 
the  center,  running  to  an  edge  all  around ;  above  this  was  a  thin 
layer  of  charcoal  with  its  margin  resting  on  the  original  surface ; 
and  over  this  the  mound  had  been  built. 

No.  3. —  This  was  originally  more  than  twenty  feet  high; 
but  cultivation  has  reduced  it  to  ten  feet,  with  a  diameter  of  about 
100  feet.  A  trench  six  feet  wide,  increasing  to  ten  feet  towards 
the  center,  was  run  in  from  the  southeast  side.  At  nineteen 
feet  out  began  a  layer  of  ashes  and  burned  earth,  remains  of  a 
fire  that  had  been  made  on  the  natural  surface  of  the  ground.  It 
■extended  in  every  direction  beyond  the  area  excavated.  Under 
the  outer  edge  was  a  hole  sixteen  inches  deep,  filled  with  loose 
earth.  Three  feet  northwest  of  this  hole  was  another  twenty- 
seven  inches  deep,  the  lower  nine  inches  containing  a  mixture 
of  ashes  and  loose  earth,  while  the  upper  portion  was  empty. 
Two  feet  west  of  the  second  was  a  third,  thirty  inches  deep, 
filled  with  loose  earth  and  charcoal;  near  the  bottom  were  two 
angular  fragments  of  burnt  rock.  Three  and  a  half  feet  north 
of  the  third  hole  was  a  fourth ;  a  foot  north  of  this  was  a  fifth ; 
southwest  from  the  last  was  a  sixth.  Each  of  these  was  aboiit 
thirty  inches  in  depth,  and  all  were  filled  with  loose,  black  earth, 
containing  small  quantities  of  charcoal,  ashes,  and  traces  of  rotten 
wood  or  bone.  In  one  were  two  valves  of  muscle  shells  of  differ- 
ent species,  the  larger  broken  as  if  in  opening.  All  of  these  holes 
were  about  eight  inches  in  diameter. 

Ten  feet  out  began  a  fire-bed,  not  over  four  feet  across  at 
any  part;  it  lay  partially  under  the  south  wall.  The  ashes  were 
three  and  a  half  inches  thick  and  the  earth  was  burned  a  bright 
red  to  a  depth  of  four  inches.  The  fire  had  burned  for  a  con- 
siderable period  and  the  ashes  were  scraped  away  from  time  to 
time,  reaching,  on  unburned  earth,  beyond  the  north  side  of  the 
.trench  and  three  feet  past  the  center  of  the  mound.     On  the 


Mounds  near  Waverly.  371 

top  of  the  ashes,  generally  with  a  few  inches  of  earth  interven- 
ing, was  a  very  thin  layer  of  decayed  wood  or  bark.  The  uncon- 
sumed  end  of  a  poplar  or  cottonwood  log  six  inches  through, 
extended  a  foot  from  the  west  edge  of  the  fire-bed. 

In  the  middle  of  the  trench,  two  feet  from  center,  was  a 
hole  eight  inches  in  diameter  and  thirty  inches  deep ;  and  three 
feet  west  of  it  one  a  foot  across  and  thirty-two  inches  deep.  The 
latter  contained  a  number  of  fragments  of  bone,  one  of  which, 
a  broad,  flat  piece,  had  been  dressed  to  a  triangular  shape  with 
the  wide  end  somewhat  rounded.  Lying  on  the  ash-bed  above 
these  holes  and  reaching  three  or  four  feet  beyond  them  to  the 
west  and  north,  was  a  mass  of  large  poles  which  had  been  thrown 
in  a  pile,  the  ends  of  the  longer  ones  projecting  somewhat  from 
the  edge  of  the  mass.  It  was  composed  of  white  walnut,  poplar 
and  cottonwood,  and  the  debris  was  in  some  places  more  than 
a  foot  thick. 

Two  feet  past  the  center,  lying  on  the  edge  of  the  ash-bed, 
Avas  the  skeleton  of  a  young  adult,  about  six  feet  long,  extended 
on  the  back  with  the  head  west,  all  the  bones  broken  and  crushed 
by  the  pressure  of  the  superincumbent  earth.  Only  twenty-two 
teeth  remained,  and  of  these  thirteen  were  more  or  less  decayed. 
Near  the  feet  was  the  edge  of  an  irregular  fire-bed  three  or  four 
feet  across.  The  skeleton  was  covered  with  several  layers  of 
bark. 

Under  the  right  femur  was  the  largest  hole  discovered.  It 
was  three  feet  deep  and  contained  a  number  of  pieces  of  ribs 
and  other  bones  from  animals ;  also  fragments  of  charcoal  as 
large  as  a  hickory  nut.  The  purpose  for  which  these  holes  were 
intended  is  not  known.  There  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  they 
were  post  holes;  nothing  was -concealed  in  them.  The  thin, 
superficial  streak  of  ashes  and  charcoal  passed  over  them  with- 
out a  break,  so  they  evidently  had  no  connection  with  the  mound. 
It  is  possible  they  were  caches  in  or  near  a  wigwam  which 
formerly  stood  at  the  site  of  the  mound 

No.  4. —  This  is  now  only  three  and  one-half  feet  high  and 
from  eighty  to  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  being  much  dis- 
turbed by  farming.  A  trench  eight  feet  wide,  run  in  from  the 
northwest  side,  showed  it  to  be  composed  of  sand,  clay,  soil  and 
muck.  About  fourteen  feet  out  were  fragments  of  a  skeleton, 
imbedded    in    black    earth,    filling   an    excavation    that    reached 


372  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

through  the  natural  soil  to  the  underlying  gravel.  At  five  and 
one-half  feet  from  center,  with  the  skull  in  the  edge  of  a  bed 
of  ashes  which  had  been  raked  from  a  fire-bed  near  the  center^ 
and  the  rest  of  the  body  extended  on  a  layer  of  muck  that  formed 
the  bottom  of  the  mound,  was  a  skeleton  of  peculiar  form.  It 
was  not  over  five  feet  long,  but  the  bones  were  very  thick  and 
the  processes  for  attachment  of  the  muscles  were  extraordinary 
in  their  development.  The  skull  was  nearly  half  an  inch  thick 
and  of  unusual  size,  mostly  back  of  the  ears,  though  the  forehead 
was  full  and  high.  The  teeth  were  large,  hard,  and  but  little 
worn.  One  other  skeleton  was  found  at  the  center,  two  and  a 
half  feet  above  the  bottom,  extended,  head  toward  the  west. 

No.  5. —  This  mound  was  sixteen  feet  high  and  sixty-five 
feet  in  diameter.  It  is  the  one  marked  ''thirty  feet  high"  in 
Squier  and  Davis's  plan  of  the  Graded  Way.  It  was  begun  with 
a  central  core  eight  feet  high,  of  black  earth  from  the  Beaver 
creek  bottoms  near  by,  and  completed  with  the  loam  of  the  field 
in  which  it  stands.  A  trench  ten  feet  wide  was  carried  in  from 
the  south  side.  Within  two  feet  of  the  summit  were  traces  of 
five  intrusive  burials,  one  of  them  of  a  child.  One  other  skeleton 
was  found  ten  feet  out,  six  feet  above  the  surface  level,  with  the 
head  toward  the  west.  Four  feet  below  this  were  part  of  the 
shaft  of  a  femur,  a  bone  of  the  hand  or  foot,  and  two  small  frag- 
ments of  skull.  Five  feet  from  these,  on  the  same  level,  was  a 
large  piece  of  skull.  From  the  arrangement  of  a  layer  of  ashes 
and  wood  below  these  fragments  and  a  thin  layer  of  wood  above, 
which  could  be  traced  for  three  or  four  feet  in  every  direction,  it 
was  evident  that  they  were  all  parts  of  a  single  interment;  but 
nothing  else  was  found  with  or  near  them,  although  these  frag- 
ments looked  fresh  and  solid  as  though  lately  denuded  of  flesh. 
East  of  the  center,  on  the  original  surface,  was  a  mass  of  ashes 
about  four  inches  thick  on  a  bed  of  burned  earth,  six  or  seven 
feet  across.  It  contained  burnt  bones  and  mussel  shells,  but  no 
charcoal ;  and  was  continuous  towards  the  west  with  a  thin  layer 
of  ashes,  over  which  was  a  layer  of  charcoal,  both  not  exceeding 
half  an  inch  in  thickness.  Above  the  latter  was  a  layer  of 
decayed  wood  in  which  were  pieces  of  oak,  walnut,  and  mulberry, 
running  to  the  north  and  west  of  center.  About  six  feet  north 
of  this  ash-bed  was  a  similar  one ;  lying  on  the  ground  between 
the  two,  with  its  burnt  ends  in  either,  was  an  oak  log  ten  inches 


Mounds  near  Piketon.  373 

thick.  Decayed  wood  and  bark  with  a  thickness  of  several  inches, 
spread  over  an  area  of  at  least  ten  feet  in  diameter  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  second  ash-bed.  In  fact,  all  through  the  black  core 
of  the  mound  were  masses  of  such  wood  and  bark,  apparently 
pertaining  to  mortuary  exercises,  but  so  confused  that  nothing 
could  be  determined  in  regard  to  their  arrangement. 

Five  or  six  feet  west  of  the  center  was  a  bed  of  ashes  three 
inches  thick  and  three  to  four  feet  across,  on  earth  burned  hard 
and  red.  In  these  ashes  were  many  small  fragments  of  bone, 
.some  burnt,  others  showing  no  trace  of  heat.  Among  them  was 
part  of  a  human  femur,  not  over  four  inches  long,  one  end  of 
Vv^hich  was  slightly  burnt  while  the  other  end  looked  remarkably 
fresh,  as  if  the  flesh  had  only  lately  been  removed  from  it.  After 
the  fire  had  died  down  three  little  packages  of  copper  beads, 
fifty-four  in  all,  were  thrown  into  the  ashes.  .  The  leather  string 
^vas  still  in  them,  while  the  inner  wrapping  of  cloth  and  the  outer 
wrappings  of  buckskin  around  them  were  not  even  marked  by 
smoke  or  heat.  A  fragment  of  the  cloth  is  shown  in  figure  290. 
Over  the  ashes  was  a  thin  sprinkling  of  powdered  hematite. 

The  next  three  in  order  have  been  much  lowered  by  cultiva- 
tion. 

No.  6. — This  is  composed  entirely  of  yellowish  clay.  Two 
feet  west  of  center,  two  and  a  half  feet  above  the  bottom,  was 
a  mass  of  burned  bone  in  small  fragments ;  it  was  about  six 
inches  thick  at  the  middle  and  less  than  two  feet  across  at  any 
part.  In  it  were  two  copper  rods  about  the  size  of  half  a  slate 
pencil,  a  perforated  gorget  of  striped  slate,  and  another  of  black 
shale,  unperforated.  A  similar  bone-bed  was  about  six  feet  east 
of  the  center,  two  feet  above  the  bottom ;  it  contained  no  relics  of 
any  sort.  At  about  the  same  level,  four  feet  west  of  the  center, 
were  traces  of  an  adult  skeleton,  with  the  head  to  the  east ;  only 
a  few  soft  fragments  of  bone  remained. 

No.  7. — In  the  construction  of  this  mound  a  hole  had  been 
■dug  through  the  three  feet  of  soil  into  the  underlying  gravel. 
Extended  on  the  back,  on  this  gravel,  head  northeast,  was  a 
skeleton  six  feet  four  inches  in  length,  the  right  hand  on  the 
neck,  the  left  hand  lying  across  the  pelvis.  At  the  right  elbow 
was  one  valve  of  a  mussel  shell ;  on  the  breast  were  two  bear's 
tusks  with  the  root  end  ground  off  at  a  sharp  angle.  Among  the 
lumbar  vertebrae  were  four  perforated  pearls  and  several  molar 


374  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

teeth  of  a  bear  with  the  roots  more  or  less  ground,  and  two  molars 
of  some  very  small  animal ;  west  of  his  feet  was  a  small  mussel 
shell  with  both  valves  perforated.  Lying  at  the  left  side  of  this 
skeleton  were  the  remains  of  a  child  three  or  four  years  old ;  on 
its  breast  was  a  small  slate  gorget.  Over  the  bodies  was  placed 
the  clay  removed  in  the  excavation;  on  this  was  spread  out  the 
gravel  removed  from  below  the  clay,  thus  reversing  the  natural 
order.  Over  the  gravel  the  mound,  of"  yellowish  clay,  was 
erected. 

No.  8. — A  trench  thirteen  feet  wide  was  carried  in  from 
the  south  side.  At  eleven  feet  out  was  a  hole  five  inches  in 
diameter,  containing  a  very  little  charcoal,  dug  into  the  under- 
lying gravel.  Five  feet  north  of  this  was  another,  eight  inches 
in  diameter  and  a  foot  deep.  Six  feet  east  of  center,  three  feet 
up,  was  part  of  the  vertex  of  a  skull  with  a  small  hole  drilled 
through ;  at  the  same  distance  southeast  of  the  center  a  complete 
skull  of  regular  Indian  type.  If  any  other  bones  had  ever  been 
here,  all  traces  of  them  had  disappeared.  Three  feet  south  of 
the  center  was  a  very  symmetrical  hole,  one  foot  in  diameter 
and  two  feet  deep,  filled  with  soil.  Five  feet  west  of  center  was 
a  hole  three  feet  deep  and  a  foot  across,  the  lower  two  feet  filled 
with  ashes  and  charcoal,  the  upper  foot  with  loose  earth.  This 
lay  within  and  close  to  the  edge  of  a  fire-bed  four  or  five  feet 
in  diameter.  Upon  the  north  and  west  portion  of  this  burned 
earth  was  a  considerable  mass  of  ashes;  the  south  side  was 
covered  with  soil,  which,  near  the  center  of  the  fire-bed,  merged 
into  the  ashes.  Over  the  whole  mass  was  spread  a  layer  of 
charcoal,  which  in  turn  was  covered  by  the  earth  composing- 
the  mound.  When  these  ashes  were  examined  they  were  found 
to  contain  numerous  fragments  of  bones,  nearly  destroyed  by 
heat.  A  few  of  them  seemed  to  be  animal  bones,  but  most  of 
them  were  human.  Among  them  were  two  fine  flint  knives, 
fragments  of  two  pipes,  and  some  smooth,  rounded  pebbles  as 
large  as  a  duck's  tgg  —  all  much  burned.  There  was  here  plain 
evidence  that  either  a  corpse  was  cremated  or  a  living  person 
burned  at  the  stake.  The  hole  showed  marks  of  fire  clear  to 
the  bottom,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  large  post  which 
stood  here  was  thus  consumed.  The  only  thing  in  favor  of  the 
idea  of  cremation  is  the  presence  of  the  pipe  fragments;  the 
knives  and  the  stones  may  have  been  used  to  add  to  the  sufferings 


Mounds  near  Piketon.  375 

of  a  victim,  but  would  have  no  place  if  a  corpse  was  to  be 
destroyed.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  intention  was  to  inflict 
torture,  it  would  seem  improbable  that  a  mound  would  be  erected 
to  commemorate  the  event.  Still,  it  is  not  safe  to  judge  barbarian 
actions  by  civilized  standards. 

No.  9. — This  is  on  the  summit  of  one  of  the  first,  or  lowest 
ranges  of  hills  bordering  on  the  Scioto,  near  the  village  of 
Jasper.  It  measured  eighty  feet  in  diameter  and  three  feet  high. 
A  six-foot  trench  was  run  through  it  from  north  to  south. 

For  twenty-five  feet  each  way  from  the  center — and  pre- 
sumably for  the  same  distance  to  the  east  and  west — the  surface 
earth  was  burned  red  to  a  depth  of  two  or  three  inches.  On  it 
rested  a  layer  of  ashes,  and  above  this  was  a  stratum  of  char- 
coal varying  from  half  an  inch  to  three  inches  in  thickness.  Rocks 
were  piled  on  the  charcoal,  many  of  them  burned  and  smoked  as. 
though  thrown  on  while  the  fire  was  still  briskly  burning.  The 
spaces  between  the  stones  were  tightly  filled  with  gray  (surface) 
earth  mixed  with  charcoal ;  it  seemed  to  have  been  gathered  up 
from  a  place  where  weeds  and  trash  had  been  burned  off.  Like 
all  the  earth  in  the  mound,  it  was  as  compact  and  solid  as  frozen 
ground.  Some  of  the  stones  weighed  more  than  150  pounds.  The 
central  core  of  the  mound,  over  an  area  of  five  feet  every  way 
from  the  center,  was  a  tough  mass  about  three  feet  in  depth,  of 
mingled  yellow  and  white  clay,  surface  earth,  a  little  charcoal  and 
ashes,  and  occasionally  a  rock.  In  three  or  four  places  holes 
which  had  been  dug  down  into  the  clay  subsoil  were  filled  with 
this  mixture.  No  bones  or  other  remains  were  found,  except  a 
few  pieces  of  charred  cloth  preserved  between  flat  rocks,  which 
kept  the  water  from  them. 

No.  10. — This  stood  on  the  same  hill  as  the  last,  but  slightly 
below  the  top  of  the  slope.  It  was  connected  with  the  hilltop  by 
a  level  causeway  thirty  feet  long,  formed  by  filling  the  interven- 
ing depression  with  large  rocks  thrown  in  at  random  and  level- 
ing the  upper  surface  with  a  pavement  of  small  stones. 

The  mound  was  eighty  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  A  ten- 
foot  trench  was  carried  into  the  north  side,  past  the  center.  The 
line  of  the  original  surface  was  easily  followed  along  the  gray 
earth  formed  by  the  decomposing  sod  growing  here  when  the 
mound  began.  At  twenty-five  feet  out  large  rocks  appeared  and 
increased  in  numbers  until  within  eight  feet  of  the  center,  where 


376  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

they  were  piled  to  a  height  of  four  feet.  Under  this  point,  on 
the  sod  Hne,  was  the  edge  of  a  layer  of  rotten  wood  covered  with 
ashes,  which  continued  sixteen  feet  to  the  southward  and  under 
the  walls  of  the  trench  on  each  side.  On  this,  covering  a  space 
ten  feet  from  north  to  south  and  from  six  to  seven  feet  east  and 
west,  was  a  mass  of  broken  and  decayed  human  bones  lying  in 
the  utmost  confusion,  as  if  they  had  been  carelessly  gathered  up 
at  some  place  or  other,  carried  here,  and  thrown  in  promiscuously. 
In  some  places  it  was  fully  six  inches  thick.  The  only  appearance 
of  regularity  anywhere  was  at  the  center  of  the  mass,  where 
an  effort  had  been  made,  without  much  success,  to  arrange 
the  bones  of  one  skeleton  in  proper  order ;  and  at  one  edge,  where 
a  corpse  was  laid,  crowded  into  the  smallest  compass  possible. 
The  earth  in  contact  with  it  was  much  blacker  than  any  other 
observed.  Enough  earth  was  thrown  on  the  bones  to  cover 
them;  over  this  was  placed  a  layer  of  wood  or  bark,  of  which 
traces  still  remained.  On  this  the  rocks  were  thrown,  reaching 
six  feet  past  the  south  edge  of  the  ashes,  and  over  all  the 
mound  was  built  to  a  height  of  eight  feet. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  these  tumuli  were  not  more 
thoroughly  explored.  The  work  was  done  in  this  manner  because 
of  a  belief  in  the  correctness  of  the  assertion  that  everything  of 
interest  or  value  in -a  mound  lies  ''directly  under  the  apex,"  and 
the  trench  in  each  case  was  made  mainly  to  study  the  method  of 
construction,  and  only  wide  enough  to  give  working  room  at  the 
center. 

The  next  three  to  be  described  were  excavated  by  marking 
a  circle  forty  feet  in  diameter,  with  the  highest  point  of  the 
mound  as  a  center,  and  removing  all  the  earth  within  this  area 
to  the  undisturbed  original  soil. 

Number  ii. —  On  a  high  terrace  near  the  mouth  of  Beaver 
creek  stood  two  mounds  whose  bases  overlapped,  giving  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  single  mound  with  two  summits.  The  smaller  part 
contained  nothing  of  interest  except  some  cloth  (see  page  699). 

The  larger  was  about  seventy-five  feet  in  diameter.  Twenty 
feet  south  of  its  center  was  a  grave  somewhat  more  than  nine 
feet  long  and  five  teet  wide,  with  a  depth  of  five  feet.  On  the 
bottom  lay  a  few  fragments  of  bones  of  a  medium  sized  person, 
extended  on  the  back,  with  head  toward  the  east.  The  body  had 
been  covered  with  bark  or  wood  which  reached  to  the  margin  of 


Mounds  near  Piketon.  377 

the  grave  on  every  side.  The  pit  was  filled  with  black,  sticky 
earth  which  had  evidently  been  carried  from  a  swamp  or  low 
bottom  and  packed  in  while  wet,  thus  causing  the  entire  decay 
of  the  skeleton.  Before  this  work  was  completed,  however, 
another  body  was  placed  at  a  distance  of  three  and  one-half  feet 
above  it,  or  eighteen  inches  lower  than  the  natural  surface.  Very 
little  of  this  remained ;  on  the  bones  of  the  wrist  were  five  small 
rectangular  pieces  of  copper. 

Number  12. — Three  and  a  half  miles  south  of  Piketon  was 
the  largest  mound,  with  one  exception,  between  Chillicothe  and 
the  Ohio  river.  It  had  an  elliptical  base  130  by  no  feet,  the  longer 
axis  north  and  south,  and  its  height  before  being  disturbed  was 

18  feet.  Its  erection  was  practically  continuous,  for  there  was 
no  line  of  demarkation  anywhere  observable  such  as  would  have 
resulted  had  the  work  been  long  interrupted.  When  the  mound, 
or  at  least  the  northern  portion  of  it,  had  reached  a  height  of 
about  three  feet,  a  hole  nearly  eighteen  inches  deep  was  dug, 

19  feet  north  of  the  center.  This  measured  four  by  six  feet  and 
was  lined  with  bark  or  wood  which  extended  beyond  it  on  every 
side.  ^The  bottom  was  uneven  except  in  the  northwest  corner 
where  a  space  had  been  leveled  ofif  barely  large  enough  to  afford 
a  resting  place  for  the  body  of  a  young  child  which  lay  straight, 
on  its  back,  with  head  east.  On  the  right  wrist  were  two  small 
copper  bracelets ;  with  the  bones  of  the  neck,  65  copper  beads 
and  some  shell  beads. 

This  burial  had  no  connection  with  the  original  purpose  of 
the  mound,  which  was  plainly  intended  to  serve  as  a  monument 
for  two  graves  in  the  natural  earth  beneath  it.  The  first  of  these 
had  its  longer  diameter  almost  coincident  with  a  radius  extending 
northeast  from  the  center  of  the  tumulus.  It  measured  ten  feet 
in  length,  seven  feet  in  width,  and  four  feet  deep.  The  sides 
were  vertical  for  two  feet  above  the  bottom;  from  this  line  the 
margin  liad  been  cut  away  with  a  gentle  slope  until  it  reached 
the  natural  surface  at  a  distance  of  eight  feet  to  each  side  of 
the  central  line. 

In  the  bottom  of  this  pit  had  been  placed  two  to  three 
inches  of  the  red  subsoil,  on  which  lay  three  to  four  inches  of  the 
deeper  gravel,  thus  reversing  their  natural  order;  above  this 
came  a  thin  seam  of  decayed  wood  which  also  lined  the  sides 
.of  the  pit,  and  extended  outward  on  each  side  to  the  top  of  the 


378  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

minor  slopes  mentioned;  next  in  order  was  a  thin  layer  of 
burned  earth,  ashes,  and  charcoal  reaching  from  the  shoulders 
to  the  knees  and  slightly  beyond  each  side  of  a  skeleton  nearly 
six  feet  long.  This  lay  at  full  length,  with  its  feet  directly 
toward  the  center  of  the  mound,  from  which  the  skull  was  dis- 
tant 21  feet.  As  near  as  could  be  determined  from  the  confusion 
of  earth  and  decayed  wood,  the  body  had  been  protected  by  a 
layer  of  wood  supported  upon  chunks  and  upon  poles  whose 
ends  were  thrust  into  the  sand  on  each  side.  Earth  was  then 
thrown  on  this  covering  to  the  original  level  of  the  soil ;  saplings 
or  small  poles  were  next  laid  around  the  margin  of  the  grave  to 
uphold  a  roof  of  wood  or  bark.  Nothing  further  was  done, 
apparently,  until  this  had  partially  fallen  into  decay ;  it  was  then 
covered  with  a  small  heap  of  dark  earth  preliminary  to  beginning 
the  mound. 

The  second  grave  was  by  far  the  largest  that  has  been 
recorded  in  this  region.  The  outline  was  tortuous,  but  could  be 
easily  traced  by  the  decayed  wood  which  had  lined  it,  or  by 
the  difference  in  the  consistency  and  color  of  the  earth  on  either 
side.  When  fully  exposed  by  removal  of  the  surrounding  top  soil, 
it  formed  an  irregular  ellipse  with  a  narrow  prolongation  toward 
the  east.  Perhaps  its  outline  is  best  described  by  the  word  ''  pear- 
shaped  ".  Its  entire  length  was  2y  feet  on  a  line  almost  exactly 
east  and  west ;  its  maximum  breadth  19  feet.  On  the  east,  north, 
and  south  sides  the  dip  was  gradual  to  a  depth  of  three  feet ;  on 
the  west  side  it  was  abrupt  to  the  bottom.  At  the  east  end  a 
graded  slope  was  left  to  facilitate  the  passage  of  those  engaged 
in  the  labor  of  excavating;  on  either  side  the  walls  were  carried 
vertically  downward  four  feet  from  the  termination  of  the  slope, 
or  to  a  total  depth  of  seven  feet.  The  pit  thus  formed  measured 
within  the  perpendicular  walls,  sixteen  feet  east  and  west  by  ten 
feet  north  and  south.  On  the  bottom  lay  a  skeleton  about  six 
feet  long,  face  upward,  head  east.  A  few  beads  were  scattered 
around  it,  and  on  each  forearm  were  three  copper  bracelets. 
One,  at  least,  of  these  was  made  of  a  piece  of  rectangular  sheet 
copper  which  had  been  doubled  along  the  center,  beaten  flat,  rolled 
into  a  cylinder  as  one  would  roll  a  piece  of  paper,  and  then  bent 
until  the  ends  were  in  contact,  forming  an  elliptical  ring  large 
enough  to  slip  over  the  hand. 


Mound  on  the  Pike-Scioto  County  Line.  379'' 

Number  13. — On  the  line  between  Scioto  and  Pike  counties 
stood  a  mound  nine  feet  high  and  75  feet  in  diameter.  Human 
remains  occurred  at  six  places  within  the  structure,  at  different 
levels ;  and  it  was  evident  from  two  strata  of  decayed  vegetation 
that  twice  at  least  the  labor  of  erecting  the  pile  had  been  suspended 
long  enough  for  a  rank  growth  of  weeds  and  grass  to  gain  a  foot- 
hold on  its  surface.  For  twenty  feet  east  and  south  of  the 
center — as  far  as  explorations  were  carried  in  that  direction — 
the  earth  upon  which  it  was  built  contained  numerous  root-holes 
of  a  size  to  indicate  that  trees  from  three  to  six  inches  in  diameter 
had  been  cut  or  burned  off  before  the  mound  was  begun.  A 
space  of  more  than  thirty  feet  across  in  the  middle  portion  of 
the  mound  was  covered  with  a  layer  of  ashes  and  charcoal  con- 
taining many  small  fragments  of  burned  animal  bones  but  no 
art  products  of  any  character.  It  varied  from  a  thin  streak  to 
a  stratum  of  three  or  four  inches ;  where  it  was  heaviest,  the  earth 
below  was  considerably  burned.  At  one  place  were  a  few  frag- 
ments of  bones  of  an  adult  burned  until  almost  destroyed;  at. 
another  point  were  the  bones  of  a  child  similarly  burned.  Both 
these  were  lying  directly  on  the  ashes  mentioned;  but  the  latter 
were  also  covered  with  ashes  to  a  depth  of  four  inches.  Many 
post  holes  were  found,  some  of  them  five  or  six  inches  in  dia- 
meter, others  a  foot  in  either  dimension ;  it  is  possible  they  formed- 
part  of  a  house  which  stood  on  the  site,  but  they  were  apparently 
set  at  random  and  not  well  arranged  for  such  purpose.  A  trench 
eight  to  twelve  inches  wide  at  the  top,  somewhat  narrower  at 
the  bottom,  and  about  a  foot  deep,  surrounded  an  irregular 
quadrilateral  space  about  twenty  feet  across  within  the  area 
covered  by  the  ashes. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  these  facts.  The  posts  were 
burned  of¥  prior  to  the  depositing  of  the  ashes,  for  the  latter 
extended  in  an  unbroken  line  over  the  holes  in  which  they  had 
stood,  except  in  three  or  four  places  where  they  were  not  entirely 
consumed.  Such  as  were  left  thus  projecting  had  formed  hollow 
molds  in  the  body  of  the  mound  where  it  had  packed  around 
them  before  their  decay ;  these  molds  were  lined  with  charcoal 
from  the  partially  burned  wood.  The  trench  also  had  been  dug 
after  the  ashes  were  deposited.  Moreover,  all  these  changes  had 
occupied  a  comparatively  short  time ;  for  unless  the  posts  had  been 
quite  solid  when  the  mound  was  piled  around  them,  they  could 


'380  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

not  have  retained  their  shape  long  enough  to  leave  a  cavity  in 
the  earth  on  their  final  decay.  It  would  seem  that  small  trees 
and  bushes,  probably  growth  over  a  former  open  space,  had 
been  cleared  away  and  a  house  erected.  This  was  afterward 
destroyed  by  fire;  at  least  two  of  the  inmates  meeting  their 
death.  Then  a  mound  was  erected  by  slow  stages,  and  bodies  of 
others  who  died  while  this  work  was  in  progress,  interred  in  it. 

A  mound  three  miles  southwest  of  Wilmington  (Clinton  county) 
■"'is  presumed  to  be  a  house  site,  as  posts  extended  into  the  structure 
to  a  depth  of  three  feet  and  formed  a  square  twelve  feet  on  each  side. 
The  posts  were  burned  and  charred  so  that  little  remained  of  them. — 
Moorehead,   108. 

ADAMS    COUNTY. 

In  the  Serpent  Mound  Park  and  immediate  vicinity  Professor 
Putnam  found  many  graves,  hut-sites,  etc.,  and  secured  a  large 
quantity  of  the  remains  pertaining  to  such.    One  grave 

"  Had  been  made  about  five  feet  deep  in  the  clay,  and  was  about  nine 
feet  long  and  five  feet  wide.  A  pavement  of  flat  stones  was  placed  over 
the  bottom  and  on  them  *  *  *  were  fragments  of  a  skeleton.  *  *  * 
Over  these  remains  were  ninety-six  large  stones.  *  *  *  With  all  the 
burials  about  here  there  was  no  uniformity  as  to  the  position  in  which 
the  bodies  were  placed."  Under  the  largest  mound  was  a  thick  layer  of 
ashes,  "covering  a  space  thirty  by  thirty-five  feet  in  diameter,"  partly 
burned  in  place  and  partly  carried  in.  Two  finely  finished  and  polished 
stone  axes  with  straight  backs,  and  grooves  around  them  were  found  at 
the  bottom  of  the  mound.  In  one  grave  were  two  skeletons  extended  at 
full  length  side  by  side.  *  *  *  Not  a  trace  of  the  skulls  could  be  found 
-and  it  was  evident  that  these  two  bodies  had  been  decapitated  before  they 
were  placed  in  the  grave.  [Yet]  the  largest  number  of  objects  I  have 
ever  seen  in  a  single  grave  was  found  with  these  skeletons.  [There  was 
abundant  evidence]  that  at  the  time  when  the  two  headless  bodies  were 
buried  the  body  of  another  person  was  Burnt  near  by,  and  that  the  ashes 
containing  the  burnt  bones,  and  various  objects  burnt  with  the  body,  were 
placed  over  the  two  individuals  in  the  grave."  —  Putnam;  Serpent. 

BROWN  COUNTY. 

"  A  small  mound  near  Boston,  Brown  county,  covered  a  burnt  space, 
11  feet  east  and  west  by  7  feet  north  and  south.  Over  the  burnt  hard-pan 
of  this  portion  was  a  compact  bed  of  ashes,  mixed  with  charcoal,  from  2 
to  3  inches  in  thickness,  and  over  this  a  layer  of  clay,  burnt  to  a  red  color, 
6  to  8  inches  thick.  Over  this  was  another  layer  of  clay,  about  a  foot 
thick,  which  had  been  burnt  slightly,  and  covering  this  was  from  one  to 
two  feet  of  clay  with  the  light  soil  above.  The  layers,  with  the  exception 
of  the  outer  one,  were  horizontal,  and  had  been  carefully -superimposed 


Mounds  in  Brown  County.  381. 

over  this  central  bed  of  ashes.  The  fire  by  which  this  mass  of  ashes  had 
been  formed  must  have  been  long  continued,  as  the  quantity  was  too  great 
to  have  been  the  result  of  any  ordinary  burning,  such  as  the  destruction^ 
by  fire  of  a  dwelling  the  size  of  a  mound.  That  there  had  been  some  sort, 
of  a  structure  on  the  spot,  however,  was  shown  by  the  twelve  post  holes, 
around  the  ash-bed  and  the  three  below  it.  These  post  holes  are  round 
soft  places  in  the  hard  clay,  from  1  to  2  feet  in  depth  and  from  8  to  14 
inches  in  diameter.  The  soft  material  filling  the  holes  is  made  up  of 
particles  of  decomposed  wood,  earth  which  has  sifted  in,  and,  generally,, 
more  or  less  of  a  deposit  of  iron  [this  is  from  the  soil].  Often  these 
holes  contain  a  little  charcoal,  the  remains  of  a  burnt  post.  We  have 
also  found  potsherds,  stones,  animal  bones,  broken  stone  implements,, 
and  other  things  in  the  holes,  as  if  they  had  been  put  there  to  aid  in; 
setting  the  post.  These  post  holes  must  not  be  confounded  with  another 
class  of  holes,  or  'soft  spots,'  which  we  have  called  pockets,  or  pits,  ac- 
cording to  their  size  and  shape. 

"  Under  another  mound,  a  mile  from  the  last,  was  an  ash-bed  41 
feet  north  and  south  and  31J  feet  east  and  west,  and  from  8  to  10  inches, 
in  thickness.  Under  this  ash-bed  were  about  sixty  post  holes,  some  of 
which  were  close  together  as  if  small  supporting  braces  had  been  placed 
against  large  posts,  and  they  were  so  arranged  that  none  were  nearer  to, 
the  center  of  the  mound  than  6  to  8  feet.  Their  arrangement  suggested 
a  series  of  posts  supporting  a  structure  of  some  kind  which  was  destroyed! 
when  the  fire  was  first  started.  Most  of  the  holes  contained  considerable- 
charcoal." —  Putnam,  XX.,  551-3,  condensed. 

Under  a  mound  seventy  feet  in  diameter  near  St.  Martin's  in  Brown 
county  was  found  "about  eighteen  feet  from  the  center  *  *  *  a  large 
pile  of  burned  earth  and  charcoal  intermingled  with  fragmentary  remains 
of  human  bones  which  had  been  burned  until  they  were  almost  destroyed ; 
but  as  there  was  about  a  bushel  of  small  pieces,  it  was  obvious  that  several 
bodies  had  been  cremated.  They  had  not,  however,  been  burned  on  the 
spot,  for  not  only  did  the  surrounding  earth  show  no  evidence  of  the  in- 
tense heat  that  would  have  been  required  to  reduce  them  to  the  condition 
in  which  they  were  found,  but  the  mass  itself  showed  the  curvature 
of  the  mound's  surface,  the  end  nearer  the  center  being  about  two  feet 
higher  than  that  first  struck.  Several  similar,  but  smaller  masses  were 
found  on  the  original  surface  at  various  distances  from  the  center." 

"  Forming  a  circle  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter  around  the  center  of 
the  mound  was  a  series  of  pockets,  placed  about  three  feet  apart.  These 
were  twenty  inches  across  the  top,  fourteen  to  sixteen  inches  at  the  bot- 
tom, three  feet  deep,  and  filled  with  small,  flat,  slightly  burned  pieces  of 
limestone,  weighing  from  two  to  three  pounds  each.  *  *  *  ^he  spaces 
between  the  stones  were  tightly  packed  with  earth  which  had  also  beeix 
burned."  —  Moorehead,  70. 

CLERMONT    COUNTY. 

"  Just  north  of  Marathon,  in  Clermont  county,"  stood  a  tumulus-. 
"  eight  feet  higli  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter ;     *     *     *     before  it  was  cleared. 


.'382  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

off  it  was  twelve  or  thirteen  feet  in  height.  *  *  *  Near  the  center  of 
the  mound  a  pit  had  been  dug  to  a  depth  of  nearly  two  feet  below  the 
original  surface,  and  the  sides  of  it  burned  quite  hard ;  this  was  filled  with 
ashes,  fragmentary  bones,  and  calcined  limestone,  intermingled  with  which 
were  a  few  mussel  shells,  pottery  fragments,  and  pieces  of  deer  antlers. 
Just  above  it  was  a  slab  of  limestone  fifteen  inches  wide  and  nearly  three 
feet  long,  which  had  been  almost  disintegrated  by  an  intense  heat.  Ad- 
hering to  the  upper  side  of  the  stone  were  portions  of  ribs  and  traces  of 
vertebrae,  burned  until  they  were  scarcely  distinguishable.  It  was  plain 
that  a  skeleton  or  body  had  been  placed  on  this  stone  and  then  cremated." 
—  Moorehead,  63. 

MONTGOMERY    COUNTY. 

THE   MIAMISBURG   MOUND. 

This,  the  largest  mound  in  Ohio,  has  never  been  explored. 
It  is  mentioned  here  partly  to  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  its  mas- 
;sive  proportions,  partly  to  correct  some  errors  of  statement. 

Squier  and  Davis  say  it 

"  is  68  feet  in  perpendicular  height,  and  852  in  circumference,  con- 
taining 311.353  cubic  feet."  —  S.  &  D.,  5. 

If  the  linear  measurements  are  correctly  given,  as  they 
probably  are,  the  cubic  contents  of  the  mound  are  more  than 
iive  times  as  much  as  their  computation ;  because  with  the  same 
height  and  base  an  exact  cone  would  contain  somewhat  more 
than  1,300,000  cubic  feet,  while  a  segment  of  a  sphere  is  more 
than  one-half  larger.  The  mound  comes  between  these  in  shape 
and  consequently  in  volume. 

Howe  states  in  one  place  that  it 

"  measures  about  800  feet  around  the  base,  and  rises  to  a  height  of 
67  feet.  *  *  Many  years  since  a  shaft  was  sunk  from  the  top  ;  at  first 
some  human  bones  were  exhumed,  and  at  a,  depth  of  about  11  feet,  the 
ground  sounding  hollow,  the  workmen  were  afraid  to  progress."  — 
Howe:  II,  566. 

A  little  farther  on  he  gives  a  confused  account,  with  con- 
flicting measurements,  of  an  attempt  at  examination  by  ''  resi- 
dent citizens"  who 

"  sunk  a  shaft  five  or  six  feet  in  diameter  from  the  top  to  two  feet 
below  the  base."  They  found  "eighty  feet  from  the  top  a  human  skeleton, 
in  a  sitting  posture."  —  Howe :  II,  569. 

A  depth  of  "eighty  feet "  would  bring  the  diggers  about  12 
feet  below  the  natural  surface.    His  first  statement  may  be  cor- 


Mounds  in  Butler  and  Hamilton  Counties.  383 

Tect ;  the  second  certainly  is  not,  for  the  appearance  of  the  mound 
proves  that  although  a  shaft  was  begun  it  was  not  carried  nearly 
to  the  bottom. 

BUTLER   COUNTY. 

A  mound  in  Wayne  township 

"  is  twenty  feet  high  and  five  hundred  and  forty  feet  circumference 
at  the  base.  It  is  composed  of  gravel  and  surface  material.  [A  partial 
excavation]  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  within  this  mound  was  a  series 
of  stone  vaults  superimposed  one  above  the  other  and  reaching  to  within 
one  foot  of  the  apex,  the  number  of  vaults  in  each  layer  or  level  increas- 
ing in  number  as  we  proceed  from  the  top  to  the  bottom.  These  vaults 
are  not  immediately  contiguous  but  separated  by  a  filling  of  gravel, 
more  or  less  mixed  with  clay  and  surface  material.  The  vaults  are 
composed  of  limestone  averaging  in  size-three  feet  in  length  and  breadth 
by  three  inches  in  thickness,  the  stone  being  set  upon  end  at  an  angle 
of  seventy-five  degrees.  Within  each  vault  occurred  a  human  skeleton, 
which  must  originally  have  been  placed  in  a  sitting  position,  for  the 
skeleton  had  fallen  into  a  heap.  *  *  *  No  implements  have  been 
found  within  the  mound,  but  ashes  and  charcoal  abound."  —  McLean, 
•221. 

The  burials  in  this  mound  appear  to  be  progressive ;  that  is, 
a  number  of  vaults  were  constructed  and  covered  with  earth, 
then  others  placed  above  them,  and  so  on,  until  the  mound  was 
complete.  IMany  years  would  probably  pass  between  the  earliest 
and  latest  interments. 

HAMILTON    COUNTY. 

VICINITY   OF    CINCINNATI. 
The  largest  mound  at  Cincinnati  was  35  feet  high  in  1794;  General 
Wayne  ordered  it  cut  down  to  27   feet  in  order  to  put  a  sentry  tower 
on  it. —  Drake:  Ab.   Races,  56. 

"  The  earth  of  the  mound  [in  which  the  Cincinnati  tablet  was  found] 
is  composed  of  light  and  dark  colored  layers,  as  if  it  had  been  raised  at 
successive  periods  by  piling  earth  of  different  colors  on  the  top.  This  ap- 
pearance might  have  been  produced,  by  successive  layers  of  vegetation  and 
freezings,  which  was  allowed  to  act  on  each  layer  before  the  mound  re- 
ceived a  suceeding  addition  to  its  height.  In  some  parts  the  layers  are 
completely  separated  by  what  appears  to  have  been  decayed  vegetable 
matter,  such  as  leaves  or  grass,  as  the  earth  is  in  complete  contact,  except 
a  very  thin  division  by  some  such  substance.  In  some  places  through  the 
mound,  there  are  vacancies  evidently  occasioned  by  the  decay  of  sticks 
of  wood,  leaving  a  most  beautiful  impalpable  powder.  Throughout  the 
mound  there  are  spots  of  charcoal,  and  in  some  places  it  is  in  beds.  In 
one  or  two  places  which  we  observed,  the  action  of  the  fire  upon  the  clay 
has  left  marks  of  considerable  intensity.  Bits  of  bone,  especially  of  skull 
bones,  are  foCmd  in  many  parts  of  the  mound."  —  Amer.  Pion.:  II,  196. 


384  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


On  a  hill  on  the  Edwards  farm,  two  miles  from  Reading,  Hamilton 
county,  was  a  mound  "  six  feet  high  and  sixty  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base. 
An  earth  embankment,  three  feet  high  and  twenty-two  feet  wide  at  its 
base,  encloses  the  mound,  forming  a  circle  about  it  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  diameter  measured  from  the  outside  of  the  embankment.  This 
circle  has  an  opening  thirty-seven  feet  wide  looking  to  the  southeast.  The 
mound  was  found  to  be  stratified.  The  outer  layer  was  composed  of 
fifteen  inches  of  very  hard  yellow  clay.  Under  this  was  a  layer,  ten  in- 
ches in  thickness,  of  burnt  clay,  mixed  with  ashes  and  charcoal.  The 
clay  in  this  layer  was  burnt  to  a  brick-red  color  and  was  very  hard. 
Below  this  was  a  stratum  of  compact  grayish  ashes  containing  pieces  of 
burnt  stone.  This  layer  was  fifteen  inches  in  thickness.  Beneath  this 
was  ten  inches  of  burnt  clay  in  which  were  a  small  chipped  flint  and  a 
fragment  of  burnt  bone  which  was  the  only  piece  of  bone  found  in  the 
mound.  Beneath  this  last  stratum,  and  occupying  the  central  portion  of 
the  mound,  was  a  conical  heap  of  hard  gray  earth  in  which  were  small 
flakes  of  charcoal.  This  gray  earth  was  so  hard  that  it  could  only  be 
removed  by  the  use  of  the  pick.  It  was  eight  by  ten  feet  in  diameter  and 
twenty-two  inches  in  thickness  in  the  center.  Under  this  hard  mass,  and 
below  the  natural  surface  of  the  clay,  were  four  circular  pockets  or  ex- 
cavations, each  of  which  was  ten  inches  deep  and  fourteen  inches  wide. 
These  pockets  were  about  four  inches  apart.  Three  of  them  were  filled 
with  a  dark,  pasty  substance  which  becomes  hard  on  drying,  and  the 
other  contained  fragments  of  stone,  burnt  clay  and  earth.  The  structure 
of  this  mound  is  unusual,  and  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  erected  over 
the  four  holes  is  unknown." 

A  structure  similar  to  the  above   was  found  on  the  same  farm.^ 
Putnam,  XVI.,  175  and  343. 

Near  these  two  was  a  mound  surrounded  by  a  stone  wall  two  feet 
high,  which  is  below  what  at  first  we  took  to  be  the  natural  level.  The 
mound  within  this  was  covered  by  a  layer  of  burnt  clay.  Under  this  burnt 
clay  we  have  discovered  a  singular  series  of  pits  about  three  feet  in  di- 
ameter and  from  four  to  nine  feet  deep.  These  pits  are  connected  with 
tunnels  or  tubes  eight  feet  long  and  a  foot  in  diameter,  having  a  slight  dip 
downward  from  the  pit  and  ending  in  a  small  vertical  tube  which  ex- 
tends to  the  '  concrete  '  or  gravel  layer  above  the  burnt  clay.  The  walls 
of  these  pits  show  the  effect  of  great  heat  and  at  the  bottoms  are  ashes 
containing  fragments  of  burnt  bones.  The  long  tunnels,  or  flues  as  we  are 
inclined  to  call  them,  still  retain  their  form  perfectly,  and  on  the  floor 
of  each  is  a  layer  of  fine  ashes.  At  the  further  ends  of  these  flues  the 
walls  are  covered  with  a  thin  glossy  incrustation,  evidently  formed  by  the 
condensation  of  vapors.  In  two  instances  the  pits  had  dome-like  cover- 
ings of  clay,  and  in  one  of  these  covers  were  two  small  holes.  These 
covered  pits  were,  like  the  others,  partially  filled  with  burnt  material,  above 
which  was  an  empty  space.  One  of  the  pits  without  a  cover  had  a  short 
tube  extending  from  it  in  an  opposite  direction  to  the  flue.     In  one  instance; 


Mounds  near  Cincinnati.  385 

two  of  these  pits  were  connected  with  a  single  flue.  That  there  was  once 
a  wooden  structure  over  the  pits  seems  to  be  indicated  by  many  holes  in 
the  gravel  forming  the  natural  surface,  which  are  now  nearly  filled  with 
a  fine  black  earth  which  we  think  was  in  part  formed  by  the  decay  of  up- 
right timbers  or  posts.    *    * 

"  At  some  time  after  the  mound  had  been  completed,  a  large  hole 
about  ten  by  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  and  seven  feet  deep,  had  been  dug  in 
the  side  of  the  mound,  cutting  through  all  upper  layers,  including  the 
stone  covering,  down  to  the  sand  layer.  At  the  bottom  of  this  hole  were 
two  human  skeletons,  lying  in  the  ashes,  which  also  extended  around 
portions  of  the  excavation,  and  arranged  about  them  were  sixteen 
human  skulls  without  other  bones."  —  Putnam,  XVI,  340-1,  and  XX,  555. 

In  a  later  report  mention  is  made  of  "  thirty-seven  pits  with 
the  singular  tubes  or  flues  connected  with  them  ",  in  this  mound. 

The  whole  structure  is  so  utterly  and  singularly  unlike  any 
other  ever  reported,  that  we  should  be  greatly  inclined  to  doubt 
the  correctness  of  the  observations  had  they  been  made  by  any 
one  with  less  experience  in  this  line  of  research  than  Professor 
Putnam.  Everything  connected  with  this  mound — the  ''  pits  ",  the 
"  flues  ",  the  intrusive  deposit  with  the  "  sixteen  skulls ",  the 
covering  of  "burnt  clay" — finds  no  counterpart  elsewhere,  and 
is  simply  inexplicable. 

TURNER   GROUP. 

The  entire  State  has  now  been  passed  in  review;  and  it 
remains  only  to  give  an  account  of  one  more  group,  which  is 
second  to  none  but  that  on  the  Hopewell  farm  in  Ross  county; 
and  as  it  is  almost  at  the  extreme  south  and  west  limits  of  the 
State,  it  fitly  concludes  the  serial  of  Ohio's  prehistoric  artisans. 

"  On  the  estate  of  Michael  Turner,  near  Milford  is  a  group  of  earth- 
works which  embraces  thirteen  mounds  and  two  earth  circles,  all  of  which 
are  enclosed  by  two  circular  embankments,  one  of  which  is  on  a  hill  and 
is  connected  with  the  other  by  a  graded  way.  Several  of  the  mounds  con- 
tained '  altars,'  or  basins  of  burned  clay,  on  two  of  which  there  were 
literally  thousands  of  objects  of  interest.  One  altar  contained  about  two 
bushels  of  ornaments  made  of  stone,  copper,  mica,  shells,  the  canine  teeth 
of  bears  and  other  animals,  and  thousands  of  pearls.  Nearly  all  of  these 
objects  were  perforated  in  various  ways  for  suspension.  Several  of  the 
copper  objects  were  covered  with  native  silver,  which  had  been  hammered 
out  into  thin  sheets  and  folded  over  the  copper.  Among  these  are  a 
bracelet  and  a  bead,  and  several  of  t^e  spool-shaped  objects,  which,  from 
discoveries  made  in  other  mounds  of  this  group,  I  now  regard  as  ear  orna- 
ments.    One  small  copper  pendant  seems  to  have  been  covered  with  a  thin 

25 


386  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

sheet  of  gold,  a  portion  of  which  still  adheres  to  the  copper,  while  other 
bits  of  it  were  found  in  the  mass  of  the  materials.  This  is  the  first  time 
that  native  gold  had  been  found  in  the  mounds.  The  ornaments  cut 
out  of  copper  and  mica  are  very  interesting  and  embrace  many  forms  i 
among  them  is  a  grotesque  human  profile  cut  out  of  mica.  Several  orna- 
ments of  this  material  resemble  the  heads  of  animals  whose  features  are 
emphasized  by  a  red  color,  while  others  are  in  the  form  of  circles  and  bands. 
Many  of  the  copper  ornaments  are  large  and  of  peculiar  shape ;  others  are 
scrolls,  scalloped  circles,  oval  pendants,  and  other  forms.  There  were 
about  thirty  of  the  singular  spool-shaped  objects  or  ear-rings  made  of 
copper.  Three  large  sheets  of  mica  were  on  this  altar,  and  several  finely 
chipped  points  of  obsidian,  chalcedony  and  chert,  were  in  the  mass  of  ma- 
terials. But  by  far  the  most  important  things  found  on  this  altar  were 
the  several  masses  of  meteoric  iron  and  the  ornaments  made  from  this 
metal.  One  of  them  is  half  of  a  spool-shaped  object,  or  ear  ornament,  like 
those  made  of  copper  with  which  it  was  associated.  Another  ear  orna- 
ment of  copper  is  covered  with  a  thin  plating  of  iron,  in  the  same  manner 
as  others  were  covered  with  silver.  Three  of  the  masses  of  iron  have 
been  more  or  less  hammered  into  bars,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  making 
some  ornament  or  implement,  and  another  is  apparently  in  the  natural 
shape  in  which  it  was  found.  In  another  altar,  in  another  mound  of  the 
group,  were  several  terra-cotta  figurines  of  a  character  heretofore  un- 
known from  the  mounds.  The  peculiar  method  of  wearing  the  hair,  the 
singular  head-dresses  and  large  button-like  ear-ornaments  shown  by  these 
human  figures  are  of  particular  interest. '  The  ear-ornaments  leave  no  doubt 
of  the  character  of  the  spool-shaped  objects.  On  the  same  altar  with  the 
figurines  were  two  remarkable  dishes  carved  from  stone  in  the  form  of 
animals.  With  these  was  a  serpent  cut  out  of  mica.  On  the  same  altar 
were  several  hundred  small  quartz  pebbles  from  the  river,  and  nearly 
three  hundred  astragali  of  deer  and  elk.  As  but  two  of  these  bones  could 
be  obtained  from  a  single  animal,  and  as  there  were  but  one  or  two  frag- 
ments of  other  bones,  there  must  have  been  some  special  and  important 
reason  for  collecting  so  large  a  number  of  these  particular  bones.  Two 
large  masses  of  native  copper  and  one  mass  of  unworked  meteoric  iron 
were  also  on  this  altar.  Many  specimens  of  fossil  shells  were  found 
on  the  two  altars. 

"  Among  the  articles  from  this  group  are  included  small  pottery  images 
of  men  and  women;  carved  shell  and  bones;  a  pendant  of  buffalo  horn; 
over  fifty  thousand  pearls;  thousands  of  small  perforated  shell  beads, 
and  of  disk  beads;  large  numbers  of  perforated  teeth  of  the  wolf,  black 
bear  and  grizzly  bear;  hundreds  of  ornaments  made  of  native  copper,  in- 
cluding beads,  scrolls,  bands,  circles,  and  various  other  shapes,  ear-orna- 
ments and  pendants."  —  Putnam,  XVI.,  170-202,  condensed. 

A  comparison  of  the  analysis  of  the  meteoric  iron  from  the  Turner 
mound,  with  that  of  other  meteoric  speciments,  would  "  seem  to  show, 
notwithstanding  the  outward  resemblance,  that  the  specimens  from  the 


The  Turner  Group.  387 

mounds  must  be  considered,   for  the  present  at  least,  as  portions  of  a 
meteorite  of  which  no  other  fragments  are  known."  —  Kinnicutt,  381. 

"  Under  one  of  the  altar  mounds,  a  large  ashpit,  six  feet  deep,  and 
similar  to  those  in  the  ancient  cemetery  at  Aladisonville,  was  discovered, 
and  under  another  altar  mound  were  several  pits  of  smaller  size,  but  of 
similar  character.  Beneath  a  small  mound  containing  skeletons,  was  an 
excavation  six  feet  wide  and  twenty-seven  inches  deep,  filled  with  ashes 
mixed  with  animal  bones,  potsherds,  and  other  objects." 

"  The  larger  of  the  two  mounds  within  the  earthwork  on  the  hill  [see 
page  209]  contained  a  small  central  tumuhis,  surrounded  by  a  carefully 
laid  stone  wall  and  covered  in  by  a  platform  of  stones,  over  which  was  a 
mass  of  clay.  On  this  wall  were  two  depressions  in  each  of  which  a  body 
had  been  laid,  and  outside  the  wall  in  the  suriounding  clay  were  found 
several  skeletons,  one  of  them  lying  upon  a  platform  of  stones."  —  Put- 
nam, XVI..  174. 

Near  the  Turner  group,  under  a  mound  14  feet  high  "  was  a  pit  four 
feet  deep,  ten  feet  four  inches  long,  four  feet  wide  at  the  ends  and  three 
feet  five  inches  wide  at  the  center.  This  pit  probably  had  contained  a 
wooden  structure,  as  its  sides  showed  rough  striations  as  if  large  logs  had 
once  rested  against  them.  The  pit  had  been  dug  in  the  drift  gravel  upon 
which  the  mound  was  built  and  was  nearly  filled  with  soft  spongy  ashes 
mixed  with  a  reddish  substance.  Extended  at  full  length  at  the  bottom 
of  the  pit  was  a  human  skeleton  with  head  to  the  west."  A  part  of  this 
mound  was  a  "  hard  mass  of  burnt  earth  and  ashes,  seven  feet  deep  and  a 
little  over  nine  feet  in  width  and  length.  [In  this]  at  points  several  feet 
apart,  *  *  were  three  holes,  or  pockets,  each  of  which  contained  the 
remains  of  portions  of  human  skeletons  surrounded  by  a  thin  layer  of 
clay."  —  Putnam,   XVI.,  343. 


CHAPTER  XI 


STONE   MOUNDS.      STONE   GRAVES.      CEMETERIES, 
VILLAGE-SITES.     SHELL    HEAPS.     FUNNEL- 
SHAPED  PITS.     ROCK  SHELTERS. 
ROCK   INSCRIPTIONS. 

STONE    MOUNDS. 

WHERE  stones  of  convenient  size  for  handling  can 
be  readily  collected,  they  are  often  used  instead 
of  earth  for  construction  of  mounds.  This  is 
especially  the  case  upon  high  lands  or  in  other  situations 
favorable  to  denudation  by  the  action  of  winds  or  rains. 
Such  erosion  has  a  double  effect.  Stones  formerly  covered 
are  left  loose  upon  the  surface ;  and  earth  which  resists 
wash  is  often  tough  and  heavy,  requiring  much  effort  for  its 
removal.  In  either  event,  the  rock  material  may  be  easier  to 
procure,  and  is  equally  adapted  for  the  purpose.  In  some  cases, 
a  mound  of  stones  was  enlarged  by  heaping  earth  over  it;  in 
others,  the  two  substances  are  mingled  throughout;  but,  as  a 
rule,  only  stones  were  used  in  the  larger  structures,  the  debris 
now  filling  interstices  being  the  accumulation  from  dust  and 
decaying  vegetation  which  has  gradually  worked  downward  from 
the  surface  to  the  interior. 

Such  mounds  are  far  less  numerous  in  any  section  of  the 
State  than  are  those  made  entirely  of  earth ;  they  occur  most 
frequently  to  the  south  and  east  of  Columbus.  Licking  and 
Perry  seem  more  favored  than  any  other  counties,  with  those 
of  great  size.  Some  of  them  were  upwards  of  twenty  feet  in 
height,  while  intact ;  and  all  that  have  been  examined  contained 
human  remiains  at  the  base ;  sometimes,  but  not  always,  specimens 
of  general  types  found  in  earthen  tumuli  were  recovered. 

One  near  Linville  is  showm  in  figure  99 ;  a  similar  one  stands 
within  Glenford  Fort.  Before  being  disturbed,  both  of  these  had 
the  shape  of  ordinary  "  conical  mounds  ". 

The  largest  known  structure  of  this  class  stood  about  ten 
miles  south  of  Newark,  near  the  east  end  of  Licking  reservoir. 

(388) 


The  Largest  Stone  Mound  in  Ohio.  389 

]\Iost  of  it  was  hauled  away  when  the  Ohio  canal  was  made.     It 
is  thus  described,  in  its  original  and  in  its  present  condition. 

"  The  large  stone  mound  near  Newark  had  a  height  of  about  fifty  feet, 
and  was  182  feet  in  diameter.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  low  embankment  of 
an  oval  form,  accompanied  by  a  ditch,  and  having  a  gateway  at  the  east 
■end.  To  make  the  dam  at  the  reservoir,  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  wagon 
loads  of  stone  were  removed  from  it.  Near  the  circumference  of  the  base 
•of  the  mound  were  discovered  fifteen  or  sixteen  small  earth  mounds,  and  a 
similar  one  in  the  center.  In  one,  two  feet  below  a  layer  of  hard,  white, 
fine  clay,  an  explorer  came  upon  a  trough,  covered  by  small  logs,  and  in  it 
was  found  a  human  skeleton,  around  which  appeared  the  impression  of  a 
coarse  cloth.  With  the  skeleton  were  found  fifteen  copper  rings,  and  a 
breast-plate  or  badge.  [The  impervious  clay  had  preserved  the  wood]. 
The  central  mound  contained  a  great  many  human  bones,  but  no  other 
relics  of  note."  —  McLean,  53,   condensed. 

"  In  April,  1896,  the  stone  mound  near  Jacksontown  measured  189 
feet  northeast  and  southv/est ;  207  feet  northwest  and  southeast ;  average 
height  81  feet ;  maximum  height  12  feet ;  minimum  height  5  feet.  From 
traditions  and  publications  of  early  archaeologists  and  from  the  curve 
preserved  by  a  large  tree  on  the  north  side,  it  must  have  been  about  55  feet 
in  height  when  completed.  Excavations  proved  that  the  mound  rested 
upon  original  surface  yellow  clay,  that  the  ground  had  been  cleared  and 
burned  over ;  the  sod  line  or  base  was  one  inch  thick  and  interspersed 
with  flint  chips,  burnt  clay  and  a  little  charcoal  and  gravel.  Generally 
above  the  base  line  was  about  three  feet  of  clay  in  which  a  few  stones 
occurred.  The  clay  plainly  showed  the  separate  small  loads  carried  in 
by  the  toilers.  In  some  places  instead  of  clay,  sand  was  found.  Exca- 
vations were  made  at  various  places,  but  without  results ;  the  teamsters, 
and  subsequent  curiosity  hunters,  had  done  their  work  thoroughly  where 
they  had  been  at  work."  —  Field  Work,  V.,  169,  condensed. 

An  earth-covered  stone  mound  in  Pike  county  is  described 
on  page  375.  Another,  located  a  mile  west  of  Chillicothe  is 
shown  in  figure  118. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  Anderson  Tov/nship,  Hamilton  County,  was 
•another  containing  two  skeletons.  "A  vertical  wall  of  stones,  two  feet 
eight  inches  high,  had  been  built  forming  a  circle  thirty-six  feet  in  diam- 
eter with  [two]  bodies  near  the  center.  The  space  inside  this  wall  had 
then  been  filled  up  with  stones  which  were  raised  in  a  conical  form  to 
a  height  of  four  feet  three  inches  in  the  center.  Over  this  pile  of  stone 
there  was  a  covering  of  about  two  feet  of  clay.  The  stones  had  all  been 
brought  from  the  bed  of  a  creek  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away."  — 
Putnam,  XIV.,  169. 

A  singular  misconception  once  prevailed,  regarding  the  use 
of  large  stone-heaps : 


890 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


W^X. 


m 


il^ 


0  r# 


Cairns  along  the  Ohio  River.  391 

"  Three  miles  back  from  the  Grave  Creek  mound,  [is]  a  rude  tower 
of  stone  standing  on  an  elevated  point,  which  commands  a  view  of  the 
whole  plain,  and  which  appears  to  have  been  constructed  as  a  watch 
tower,  or  lookout,  from  which  to  descry  an  approaching  enemy.  *  *  * 
About  six  or  seven  feet  of  the  wall  is  still  entire.  It  is  circular,  and 
composed  of  rough  stones,  laid  without  mortar  or  the  mark  of  a  hammer. 
A  heavy  mass  of  fallen  wall  lies  around,  covering  an  area  of  some  forty 
feet  in  diameter.  Two  similar  points  of  observation  occupied  by  dilapi- 
dated towers,  are  [on  the  near-by  river  hills.]  "  —  Schoolcraft,  312. 

This  was  either  a  burial  mound  covering  a  wooden  vault 
whose  decay  allowed  the  apex  to  settle;  or  one  of  the  peculiar 
structures  such  as  crown  some  of  the  hills  on  the  Kanawha 
River,  where  a  circular  vault  or  "  well  "  was  made  in  which  a 
corpse — or  perhaps  more  than  one — was  placed,  and  a  great 
quantity  of  loose  stones  heaped  over  and  around  it. 

STONE  GRAVES. 

Small  heaps  of  stones,  covering  graves  made  in  various 
ways,  occur  over  many  States.  In  southern  and  eastern  Ohio 
they  are  quite  frequent.  Squier  and  Davis  thus  briefly  refer 
to  them: — 

"  Rude  heaps  of  stone,  occasionally  displaying  some  degree  of  regu- 
larity, are  not  uncommon  at  the  v/est,  though  by  no  means  peculiar  to 
that  section  of  the  country.  It  is  exceedingly  questionable  whether  any 
of  them  belong  to  the  same  era  with  the  other  works  here  treated  of,, 
although  they  are  usually  ascribed  to  the  Mound  Builders.  The  stone 
mounds,  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made,  are  very  different 
structures,  and  should  not  be  confounded  with  these  rude  accumulations. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  stone  heaps  observed  in  the  course  of  these 
investigations,  is  situated  upon  the  divide  between  Indian  and  Crooked 
creeks,  and  between  Brush  Creek  and  the  Scioto  river,  at  its  highest  point, 
about  ten  miles  southwest  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  It  is  immediately  by  the 
side  of  the  old  Indian  trail  which  led  from  Shawanoe  town  [Old  Chilli- 
cothe, now  Frankfort],  to  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  river,  and  consists  of 
a  simple  heap  of  stones,  rectangular  in  form,  and  measuring  one  hundred 
and  six  feet  in  length  by  sixty  feet  in  width,  and  between  three  and  four 
in  height.  [It]  was  originally  quite  symmetrical  in  outline."  A  similar, 
but  smaller  heap  is  near  Tarleton,  where,  "  large  numbers  of  crumbling 
human  bones  [were]  intermingled,  apparently  without  order,  with  the 
stones"  — S.  &  D.,  184. 

The  first  of  these  has  been  entirely  removed,  as  interfering 
with  cultivation.  No  one  now  living  near  its  site  knows  whether 
any  human  bones  were  found  in  it.     Possibly  it  was  only  a  sort 


392  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  monument,  or  a  landmark.     "Brush  Creek"  in  the  text  should 
be  "  Paint  creek  ". 

The  Tarlton  mound  is  probably  a  modern   Indian  burial- 
place. 


Quite  different  from  these  is  a  type  of  stone  graves,  once 
quite  abundant  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio  River,  from  Man- 
chester, Ohio,  to  Dover,  Kentucky,  a  distance  of  twenty-five 
miles.  A  few  stood  at  varying  intervals  for  some  miles  below 
Dover,  and  as  far  up  the  river  as  Huntington,  West  Virginia; 
and  some  remain  along  North  Fork  of  Licking  River  in  Mason 
county,  Kentucky.  They  were  most  abundant  from  Manchester 
to  Ripley  on  the  Ohio  side  of  the  river,  and  from  Maysville  to 
Dover  on  the  Kentucky  side.  Between  these  points,  almost  every 
peak,  ridge,  or  high  elevation,  commanding  an  extensive  view  of 
the  Ohio  Valley,  was  crowned  with  at  least  one,  and  in  many 
instances  several  of  these  cairns.  The  smallest  ones  contained  not 
more  than  a  wagon-load  of  stones;  the  largest  fully  fifty  times 
as  much.    Between  these  extremes  was  every  intermediate  size. 

Two  miles  above  Aberdeen,  a  narrow  ridge  extends  directly 
south  for  about  500  feet  from  the  rolling  table  land.  Its  top  is 
horizontal ;  its  sides  slope  steeply  like  the  roof  of  a  house,  to  a 
gorge  on  either  side ;  the  end  falls  precipitously  to  the  river  level. 

A  cairn  on  this  ridge,  about  300  feet  from  its  point,  w^as  much 
the  largest  tumulus  of  this  character  yet  discovered.  It  measured 
34  feet  from  north  to  south,  37  feet  from  east  to  west,  with  its 
summit  six  feet  above  the  southern  margin.  The  surface  on  this 
side,  however,  is  much  lower  than  formerly,  on  account  of  careless 
cultivation.    It  is  shown  in  figure  119. 

A  trench  reaching  to  the  subsoil  was  dug  entirely  around 
the  mound,  and  carried  inward  until  the  imbedded  rocks  were 
exposed ;  they  covered  an  area  about  26  feet  north  and  south, 
by  29  feet  east  and  west.  These  measures  are  only  approximate 
for  roots  had  so  displaced  the  stones  as  to  destroy  the  continuity 
of  their  outline.  There  was  less  disturbance  at  the  southeast 
side  than  elsewhere.  On  this  side,  near  the  top,  was  a  grave 
whose  bottom  was  paved  with  slabs ;  it  measured  three  by  six 
feet  inside,  being  longest  from  northwest  to  southeast.  The  sides 
were  formed  of  similar  slabs,  set  on  edge,  with  the  tops  sloping 


Stone  Graves  near  Aberdeen. 


393 


-outward ;  the  measurements  to  the  top  of  the  outside  row  were 
about  7J  and  S-J  feet.  Bones  were  found  in  the  earth  from  three 
to  six  inches  above  this  floor ;  but  none  were  lying  on  the  stones. 
Under  this  pavement  was  another  of  the  same  kind;  the 
rough  faces  of  the  stones  were  in  contact.  Between  the  two 
were  many  crushed  fragments  of  human  bones.  It  appeared 
that  more  than  one  body  had  been  placed  in  each  of  these 
graves ;  but  the  remains  were  so  decayed  and  fragmentary  that 
not  even  a  guess  could  be  made  as  to  their  number  or  the 
manner  of  their  interment. 


Figure  119  —  Stone  Graves  in  a  Mound  of  Earth,  near  Aberdeen. 

At  the  top  of  the  mound,  on  the  east  side,  was  a  small 
grave ;  it  was  only  five  feet  long  and  three  feet  wide,  measuring 
from  the  tops  of  the  enclosing  stones.  It  contained  a  few  frag- 
ments of  decayed  bone.  A  foot  below  it  was  an  extended 
skeleton,  with  the  head  east,  lying  just  above  the  natural  sur- 
face, covered  and  surrounded  with  dark  earth  similar  to  the 
native  soil. 

A  grave  which  antedated  the  mound  was  found  under  its 
margin  on  the  southwest  side ;  it  had  been  dug  to  the  yellow 
clay.  On  its  level  stone  floor  were  rotten  fragments  of  human 
bones,  with  a  little  charcoal  and  some  pieces  of  burned  animal 
bones.     Slabs,  lying  at  the  level  of  the  original  surface,  covered 


394  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

it  and  were  continuous  with  those  extending  up  the  side  of  the 
mound.  Those  forming  the  sides  enclosed  a  space  only  eighteen 
by  forty-eight  inches  at  the  bottom ;  some  of  them  were  vertical, 
and  it  is  probable  all  were  so  at  the  beginning,  those  now  leaning 
having  been  pushed  from  their  normal  position  by  the  roots  which 
surrounded  them  on  every  side.    It  is  shown  in  figure  120. 

Half-way  between  the  center  and  the  south  side,  on  the  yel- 
low clay  subsoil  was  a  thin  irregular  layer,  from  four  to  five 
feet  across,  of  charcoal  containing  some  burned  animal  bones. 
This  had  been  brought  from  elsewhere,  there  being  no  marks 
of  fire  on  the  earth  about  it. 

Twelve  feet  south  of  the  center,  in  the  dark  earth  and  at  a 
lower  level  than  any  graves  in  this  portion  of  the  mound,  were 
two  extended  skeletons  with  heads  toward  the  northeast.  One 
was  directly  above  the  other,  with  nearly  a  foot  of  earth  sepa- 
rating them.  The  bones  of  both  were  very  soft.  Close  to  the 
head  of  the  upper  one  was  a  small,  rudely-worked,  flint  implement, 
having  a  triangular  section ;  this  may  have  been  buried  with  the 
body,  but  more  likely  its  presence  was  accidental.  The  lower 
skeleton  was  that  of  a  very  tall  but  rather  slender  individual ; 
all  the  molars  were  gone  from  the  lower  jaw  and  the  bone  was 
closed  up  solid.  The  skull  was  flattened  between  two  small 
stones ;  near  it  lay  a  flat-stemmed  pipe.  East  of  the  skulls, 
and  close  to  them,  were  two  limestone  slabs,  set  vertical,  and 
reaching  down  almost  to  the  yellow  clay;  each  was  so  large 
as  to  tax  the  strength  of  three  men  in  removing  it.  It  was  evi- 
dent from  the  situation  of  these  skeletons  and  the  one  previously 
noted,  that  at  least  three  individuals  were  placed  here  and  covered 
with  earth,  and  that  the  cairn  was  built  over  and  around  their 
remains.  This  fact,  in  connection  with  the  position  of  the  small 
stone  grave  shown  in  figure  120  is  fairly  good  evidence  that  the 
two  methods  of  burial  were  in  use  by  the  same  people  at  or  about 
the  same  time. 

A  small  pile  of  rocks  shown  in  figure  119,  on  the  top  of  the 
mound,  was  the  covering  of  a  grave  six  feet  from  north  to  south, 
four  feet  from  east  to  west,  and  sixteen  inches  deep — all  meas- 
urements made  from  the  top  of  the  inclined  slabs.  Just  west  of 
this  grave  was  another,  almost  circular,  about  three  feet  in 
diameter.  The  stones  forming  the  adjacent  walls  were  resting 
against  each  other. 


Stone  Graves  near  Aberdeen. 


395 


When  the  floors  of  these  two  graves  were  hfted,  fragmen- 
tary bones  were  found  immediately  under  them,  resting  on  a 
similar  floor;  below  this  was  another  layer  of  bone;  and  so  they 
continued  until  eight  layers  of  bone  were  disclosed,  separated 
by  thin,  flat  stones,  with  no  earth  between  them  except  such  as 
had  made  its  way  downward  through  the  narrow  spaces  between 
the  rocks.  It  appeared  that  successive  burials  had  taken  place,  and 
that  each  had  in  some  measure  interfered  with  those  preceding 
it ; — as  if  a  grave  were  uncovered,  flat  stones  laid  directly  on 
the  bones  within,  and  a  body  placed  on  them;  or  a  grave  par- 
tially destroyed  to  make  room  for  another;  or  the  side  or  end 


Figure  120 — Cairn,  Cleared  Out,  in  Mound,  Figure  119. 


wall  of  one  grave  utilized  as  part  of  a  later  one.  The  resulting 
confusion  was  greatest  in  the  four  layers  immediately  below  the 
two  top  graves ;  there  was  less  disorder  in  the  next  four.  The 
entire  area  covered  by  these  graves  measured  fifteen  feet 
east  and  v^est  by  eleven  feet  north  and  south.  The  bones  varied 
much  in  size;  one  jaw  was  massive  and  nearly  two  inches  longer 
than  that  of  any  one  present  at  the  time.  Bones  of  children 
were  also  found.     None  were  in  condition  for  preservation. 

In  the  original  soil,  near  the  central  portion  of  the  earth 
mound  on  which  these  graves  were  made,  were  two  small  shal- 
low holes  containing  some  charcoal  and  scraps  of  burned  animal 
bone ;  in  one  were  two  lumps  of  ochre  and  a  copper  spool-shaped 
object.  Though  much  smaller,  and  of  a  slightly  different  pattern, 
the  latter  resembles  the  so-called  "ear  ornaments"  frequently 
found  in  the  larc^e  earth  mounds.     Lving  loose  in  the  dark  earth„ 


S96  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

at  the  same  level,  within  an  area  of  a  square  foot,  were  found 
part  of  an  adult's  jaw;  half  the  head  of  a  child's  humerus;  and 
one  vertebra  of  an  animal  as  large  as  a  cat.  Altogether,  the 
appearance  of  this  portion  of  the  structure  gave  little  evidence  of 
that  veneration  for  the  dead  which  is  usually  considered  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  aboriginal  American. 

Half-way  between  the  center  and  the  north  edge  of  the 
mound,  was  a  grave  more  carefully  made  and  in  better  condi- 
tion than  any  other  discovered  in  the  course  of  this  work.  The 
floor  lay  below  the  original  surface,  though  not  so  deep  as  the 


Figure  121  —  Typical   Cairn,    with   Covering  in   Place,   in   Mound,    Figure  119. 

subsoil,  while  the  side  stones  forming  the  walls  reached  well  up 
into  the  body  of  the  mound.  The  earth  all  about  it  was  so  uni- 
form in  appearance  with  the  native  soil  and  with  the  earthen  core 
of  the  cairn,  that  it  was  impossible  to  establish  any  conclusion  as 
to  the  relative  times  of  their  construction.  The  grave  may  have 
preceded  the  mound,  or  the  mound  may  have  been  opened  and 
re-filled.  When  the  size  of  the  grave  is  considered,  the  former 
supposition  is  the  more  probable.  Measuring  from  the  outer 
part  of  the  enclosing  slabs,  its  length,  from  east  to  west,  was 
nine  feet,  and  its  breadth  four  feet.  The  south  wall  cut  across  a 
thin  deposit  of  charcoal  and  burned  bones ;  the  part  that  was  left 
of  this  occupied  a  space  of  about  one  by  two  feet.  The  remains 
of  one  person  lay  on  the  rock  floor,  head  towards  the  east ;  near 


Stone  Graves  near  Aberdeen. 


397 


the  skull  was  a  small  concretion,  possibly  used  as  a  paint  cup. 
Figure  121  represents  the  grave  with  the  covering  slabs  in  place, 
except  as  they  have  been  disarranged  by  falling  in,  or  by  the 
roots  which  penetrated  between  them  in  every  direction;  figure 


Figure  122. 


Figure  123  — Grave,   Shown  in  Figure  121,  Cleaned  Out. 

122  looking  towards  the  east,  and  figure  123  looking  toward  the 
west,  show  ir  as  it  appeared  when  cleaned  out.  The  large  stone 
close  to  the  east  end  of  the  grave  had  no  connection  with  it,  but 
seemed  to  belong  with  another  burial,  as  flattened  fragments  of 
skull  and  other  bones  were  found  between  it  and  a  somewhat 
smaller  slab  that  lay  against  it.  Such  finds  as  this  were  noted 
at  scores  of  places  throughout  the  stone  portion  of  this  burial 


398  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

place;  and  while  in  a  few  instances  the  peculiar  position  of  the 
remains  may  be  due  to  the  slipping  or  settling  of  stones  between 
which  they  occurred,  it  was  plain  that  a  majority  of  them  were 
so  placed  intentionally.  Often  there  would  be  no  more  than  a 
handful  of  bones  so  interred — as  if  a  dismembered  skeleton  had 
been  carried  in,  piece-meal,  at  odd  times. 

In  clearing  off  the  north  edge  of  the  structure,  the  rocks  at 
the  surface  were  found  to  rest  on  a  mass  of  tough,  waxy,  yellow 
clay.  On  removing  this  to  depth  of  from  15  to  24  inches,  a 
pavement  of  large  flat  rocks  was  found.  This  included  an  area 
of  about  six  by  eleven  feet,  longest  east  and  west.  The  margin 
was  tolerably  regular,  but  the  stones  in  the  central  portion  were 
in  disorder.  Under  the  latter  were  the  remains  of  two  skeletons, 
one  of  them  quite  large,  extended  on  the  natural  surface  of  the 
ground,  with  heads  toward  the  east.  Instead  of  having  slabs 
placed  on  edge  around  them  as  was  the  case  in  the  other  graves, 
they  were  enclosed  by  a  mass  of  yellow  clay  a  foot  thick.  Char- 
coal was  sprinkled  around  the  east  end  of  the  grave  as  far  as 
the  middle,  and  a  row  of  slabs  laid  around  the  margin,  as  shown 
in  figure  124.  The  rocks  filling  the  grave  had  either  been  thrown 
in,  or,  what  is  more  probable,  placed  upon  timbers  laid  from  side 
to  side,  and  had  fallen  in  when  the  latter  decayed.  Yellow  clay 
was  piled  over  and  around  the  whole  affair.  Although  this  grave 
was  clearly  a  part  of  the  general  interments  at  this  spot,  as  it  was 
protected  by  the  same  covering  of  rocks  that  extended  over  the 
rest  of  the  mound,  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  it  had  neither 
walls  nor  floor  of  flat  stone  as  had  all  the  others;  and  that  this 
was  the  only  one  in  whose  construction  yellow  clay  was  used. 

The  second  cairn  opened  was  situated  a  hundred  feet  south 
of  the  first.  It  measured  22  feet  from  north  to  south,  and  four- 
teen feet  from  east  to  west.  A  shingle-like  arrangement  of  lime- 
stone rocks  covered  the  top,  as  shown  in  figure  125.  These  lay 
upon  ordinary  soil  which  for  the  first  three  or  four  inches  was 
free  from  stones  except  the  tops  of  some  set  vertically  in  the 
earth  below.  The  east  side  was  much  more  rocky  than  the  west, 
perhaps  because  it  was  closer  to  the  bluff  on  that  side.  On  the 
west  slope  bones  were  found  within  three  inches  of  the  top  of 
the  ground;  although  in  fragmentary  condition,  they  were  much 
stronger  and  more  solid  than  would  be  expected  from  their  posi- 
tion.    Some  were  on  a  disturbed  pavement,  others  not  at  all  in 


Stone  Graves  near  Aberdeen, 


399 


Tigure  124  — Grave  Modeled  of  Cla>   ^..^  ^^.cred  with  Stone,   in  Mound,   Figure  119. 


Figure  125  —  Cairn,   near  Aberdeen. 


400  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

contact  with  rock.  The  central  part  of  the  cairn  seemed  to  be 
made  up  of  numerous  successive,  interfering  burials,  so  much 
so  that  bones  and  rocks  were  promiscuously  intermingled.  Added 
to  this  the  roots  of  several  trees  had  brought  the  whole  interior 
into  such  disorder  that  it  was  impossible  to  ascertain  anything 
definite  about  the  burials.  A  small  celt  was  found  among  some 
bones. 

The  third  cairn  of  this  group  was  on  a  point  one-fourth  of 
a  mile  east  of  the  first  two.  It  stood  slightly  below  the  highest 
point  of  the  ridge,  and  was  quite  small,  measuring  only  ten  feet 
in  diameter  and  two  feet  high.  Many  small  stones  were  piled  on 
it.  There  was  no  rock  floor  on  the  bottom ;  a  body  had  been  laid 
on  the  natural  surface,  with  the  head  toward  the  east  and  fully 
a  foot  lower  than  the  feet.  The  stones  around  the  margin  of  the 
grave,  instead  of  being  placed  on  edge  were  laid  flat  upon  one 
another  to  make  a  wall  about  as  high  as  the  body.  The  interior 
of  the  grave  was  filled  with  rocks  whose  order — or  disorder — 
showed  plainly  that  they  had  formerly  been  supported  by  timber 
resting  on  the  side  walls  and  had  tumbled  in  when  this  decayed. 

The  crowns  of  the  teeth  were  worn  flat.  Lying  across  the 
lower  leg  bones  of  the  skeleton  were  the  corresponding  bones 
of  another  person.  From  their  position  it  seemed  that  a  body 
had  been  placed  at  a  right  angle  to  the  first,  with  the  head  and 
trunk  extending  under  and  to  the  outside  of  the  wall  on  the 
south ;  but  no  traces  of  the  skeleton  could  be  found  in  this  direc- 
tion.    The  grave  vault,  cleaned  out,  is  shown  in  figure  126. 

The  fourth  cairn  stood  about  thirty  feet  south  from  the  third, 
on  the  edge  of  the  steep  slope  toward  the  river.  It  was  nearly 
rectangular  in  shape;  the  north,  south,  and  west  sides  were 
bounded  by  very  large  slabs  standing  almost  vertical ;  at  the  east 
end  were  ten  or  twelve  tiers  of  large  stones  sharply  inclined 
inward,  none  of  them  having  ever  been  upright.  Nearly  all  the 
stones  in  the  walls  are  more  or  less  pushed  out  of  their  original 
position  by  the  roots  of  trees  growing  among  them;  and  it  is 
probable  that  in  past  times  other  trees,  which  have  now  disap- 
peared, aided  in  this  work.  Many  wagon-loads  of  rocks  have  been 
piled  on  this  cairn  from  the  surrounding  field.  When  these  were 
removed  and  the  original  top  of  the  structure  revealed,  it  was 
clear  that  the  central  poftion,  of  large  and  small  stones  mingled  in 
confusion,  had  fallen  into  the  grave  on  the  decay  of  some  sup- 


Stone  Graves  near  Aberdeen. 


401 


porting  material,  probably  logs  or  poles.  They  rested,  now,  upon 
a  floor  of  thin,  small,  flat  rocks  which  followed  the  natural  slope 
of  the  ground ;  this  was  not  level  anywhere,  and  was  fully  a  foot 
higher  at  the  upper  side  than  at  the  opposite,  or  southern,  side. 
The  floor  extended  over  an  area  of  nine  feet  north  and  south, 
by  twelve  feet  east  and  west,  fitting  close  up  to  the  vertical  slabs,, 
reaching  beneath  the  inclined  rocks  at  the  east  end  and  termin- 
ating beyond  the  outside  row.  Fragmentary  human  bones  were 
scattered  all  over  this  pavement ;  the  leaning  stones  seem  to  have 


^^; 

md 

•i^^^wl 

^pi^ 

y^Hf^^^^^^ 

»^4P  "^ 

^'^B'^^l^iZ^W '^^ 

^^             ^^IP^*^ 

-^^•^ 

Figure  126  —  Grave,  in  Cairn  near  Aberdeen. 

been  set  down  directly  on  them.  Pieces  of  skulls  were  found  at 
fourteen  different  points,  indicating  at  least  that  number  of  inter- 
ments. Each  deposit  of  bones,  however,  was  quite  small;  and 
in  some  places  portions  of  skull,  vertebra,  phalanges,  ribs,  etc., 
would  be  in  contact  within  a  space  a  few  inches  across.  These 
facts  denote  skeleton  burials ;  though  the  same  results  might  fol- 
low from  depositing  a  corpse  folded  and  bound  into  the  smallest 
possible  compass.  A  few  bones  of  birds,  to  the  size  of  a  pheasant, 
and  mammals  as  large  as  a  fox,  were  found ;  the  only  relics  were 
a  small,  delicately  wrought,  triangular  flint,  and  the  stem  of  a 
catlinite  platform  pipe. 

When  the  inclined  stones  at  the  east  end  were  removed, 
human  bones  were  found  between  the  layers,  several  inches  above 
26 


402  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  floor.  It  is  difiicult  to  understand  how  they  got  there,  for  the 
slabs  were  in  as  close  contact  as  the  unevenness  of  their  surfaces 
would  permit. 

The  last  cairn  opened  at  this  place  was  200  yards  from  the 
third  and  fourth,  on  another  point  of  the  same  ridge.  When  the 
accumulated  trash,  possibly  including  some  small  stones  of  the 
original  structure,  was  cleared  away,  it  measured  sixteen  feet 
across,  with  a  somewhat  irregular  outline.  The  covering  rocks 
were  in  a  confused  mass ;  their  original  arrangement  could  not 
be  made  out.  Underneath  them,  to  one  side  of  the  center,  were 
bones  of  an  adult  with  the  teeth  nearly  worn  away ;  of  a  child 
whose  molars  and  lateral  incisors  were  not  yet  through  the  bone; 
of  a  deer ;  and  of  a  bird  the  size  of  a  turkey.  Several  flat  stones 
lay  under  them,  but  not  in  any  order,  and  not  in  contact  with  one 
another  so  as  to  form  a  floor.  Other  bones  were  found  below 
these,  partly  in  the  earth  and  partly  lying  on  a  rather  even  and 
smooth  pavement  of  thin  rocks,  none  of  them  more  than  a  foot 
across ;  this  pavement  measured  ten  feet  from  north  to  south, 
and  six  feet  from  the  east  side  to  where  it  disappeared  under  the 
trees.  It  is  evident  that  interment  in  this  cairn  occured  at  two 
periods.  ' 

On  the  same  hill  with  these  cairns  stood  another,  of  which 
no  record  was  kept.  Two  photographs  were  made.  One  of 
them,  reproduced  in  figure  127,  shows  the  grave  after  the  loose 
rock  had  been  thrown  off;  the  other,  figure  128,  shows  the  vault 
as  it  appeared  when  cleared  out.  A  wall  of  slabs  on  the  left 
side,  inclined  like  those  on  the  right,  were  so  displaced  by  roots 
that  they  could  not  be  shown  in  their  proper  position  and  conse- 
quently do  not  figure. 

Four  miles  east  of  Ripley,  large  flat  slabs,  set  on  edge, 
enclosed  a  circle  fifteen  feet  in  diameter.  Within  this,  lying 
on  the  yellow  clay  subsoil,  was  a  closely  fitted  pavement  of  simi- 
lar slabs.  An  extended  skeleton  lay  at  the  center,  with  head 
east;  it  measured  fully  seven  feet  in  length.  There  were  many 
fragments  of  bones  pertaining  to  other  bodies;  among  them  a 
fragment  of  a  child's  skull,  a  femur  corresponding  in  size  to 
that  of  the  skeleton,  and  three  femora  of  ordinary  size  lying  side 
by  side.  Whether  these  were  so  interred  or  whether  the  other 
bones  belonging  with  them  had  entirely  disappeared  through 
.decay,  could  not  be  ascertained.     The  circle  was  filled  to  the 


Stone  Graves  near  Ripley. 


403 


^< 


•^^:fit 


^< 


a!^'^Si^>? 


Figure  127  —  Cairn   near  Aberdeen. 


f^M 

^jl^~jt*  ^^  j3I 

n 

« 

■  -,-:-<?;-^ 

l^^v    ^..^3^-i^^ 

/   :        ■ 

r*"Wi    -  ^-  *  s^^r^^Z^BH 

^  ^^^S^r-^Z^^^^iil::^'^'*'^ 

Figure  128  — Grave  in  Cairn,  Figure  127. 


404  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

level  of  the  ordinary  surface  with  stones  of  various  sizes  lying 
promiscuously.  Probably  they  had  been  supported  by  timbers 
whose  decay  allowed  them  to  fall  in. 

In  figure  129  (B.  E.  12,  455,  fig.  312),  A  represents  the 
plan  and  B  a  vertical  section  of  a  grave  forty  yards  from  the 
last.  The  outer  row,  a  a,  was  a  circle  nineteen  feet  in  diameter, 
composed  of  upright  slabs ;  the  next,  b  b,  an  ellipse,  the  stones 
leaning  inward  and  the  western  edge  of  each  one  overlapping 
the  eastern  edge  of  that  adjacent;  this  measured  13  by  9^  feet, 
within  were  two  rows,  c  c,  also  leaning  inward;  and  finally 
another  ellipse  formed  of  slabs  inclined  outward,  their  tops  rest- 
ing against  the  slabs  c  c.  This  interior  elliptical  trough  meas- 
ured II  by  2  feet  on  the  bottom,  and  contained  small  fragments 
of  bones  of  at  least  one  adult  and  one  very  young  child.  Several 
slabs  were  lying  on  and  over  this  coffin,  but  as  the  inner  ends 
of  some  were  on  the  bottom,  while  the  outer  ends  rested  on  the 
stones  at  the  side,  it  is  probable  that  originally  a  pole  or  log 
extended  lengthwise  over  the  grave  to  support  them.  All  the 
space  within  the  ellipse,  b  b,  was  paved  with  flat  stones  lying  on 
the  subsoil,  e  e — the  soil,  d  d,  being  about  a  foot  deep. 

On  a  hill  near  this  were  formerly  cists,  said  to  be  rectangular 
in  form,  about  two  by  eight  feet,  with  large  slabs  laid  across  the 
top  and  other  stones  piled  on  these.  Enough  of  them  remained 
to  prove  the  correctness  of  the  statement  as  to  form  and  size. 

In  the  same  neighborhood  a  grave  had  been  opened  by  resi- 
dents who  claimed  that  "it  was  arched  over."  Careful  examin- 
ation of  the  unremoved  portion,  showed  a  pavement  of  slabs  cov- 
ering an  elliptical  area  about  twenty  by  thirty  feet.  Beginning 
at  the  edge  of  this,  successive  rows  of  slabs,  a  d,  b  c,  set  on  edge 
and  inclined  toward  the  center  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees,  covered 
a  zone  six  feet  in  width;  the  inner  row  was  supported  by  small 
fragments,  k  I,  tightly  packed.  This  left  a  clear  space  of  eight 
by  eleven  feet,  from  which  it  was  reported  many  bones  had  been 
taken.  Between  the  upper  edges  of  the  flat  stones  of  this  bottom 
row,  others  were  inserted,  forming  a  second  tier,  which  sloped 
inward  at  a  somewhat  greater  angle  than  the  first ;  and  there 
w^as  some  evidence  of  still  a  third,  above  these.  It  seems  that 
this  method  had  been  continued  until  an  ''arch"  was  formed  over 
the  central  portion,  the  rocks  being  so  interlocked  at  the  top  that 
they  could  not  fall  in.     A  restoration  is  attempted  in  figure  130 


Stone  Graves  near  Ripley. 


405 


(B.  E.  12,  456,  fig.  313).  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  con- 
nection that  at  the  old  Shawnee  town  near  Winchester,  Virginia, 
a  grave  was  opened  whose  construction  was  exactly  similar  to 
this,  except  as  to  the  pavement.  At  the  latter  place  the  smooth 
bed-rock  is  only  a  few  inches  from  the  surface,  so  that  no  arti- 
ficial foundation  was  necessary. 


Figure  129  —  Plan  and  Section  of  Unique  Stone  Grave  near  Ripley. 


ad  c 

Figure  130  —  Cairn  Containing  an  "Arch; 


near  Ripley. 


It  is  impossible  to  assign  a  date  to  these  graves,  or  to  deter- 
mine what  tribe  of  Indians  may  have  constructed  them.  The 
great  diversity  in  their  form,  size,  and  arrangement,  renders  any 
attempt  at  classification  mere  guess-work. 

Dr.  Cyrus  Thomas  (B.  E.  12,  691)  is  inclined  to  attribute 
them  to  the  Shawnees,  who  made  the  ''box  graves"  in  various  por- 
tions of  the  country ;  but  while  the  Shawnee  method  of  setting 
slabs  on  edge  around  a  body  was  largely  followed  in  this  locality, 


406  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

there  are  also  found  here  radical  departures  from  any  known 
Shawnee  graves.  This  may  be  due,  however,  to  local  customs 
slowly  developed  during  a  long  period  of  quiet,  unmolested  occu- 
pancy of  the  limited  area  where  these  cairns  are  found.  The  cop- 
per "spool-shaped"  ornament,  and  the  flat-stemmed  pipe  are  ob- 
jects which  are  commonly  considered  as  pertaining  to  the  "Mound 
Builders;"  but  this  people  was  certainly  not  concerned  in  the 
stone  graves  of  this  portion  of  the  Ohio  valley. 

Very  few  articles  were  deposited  with  the  dead;  so  far  as 
may  be  judged  from  personal  exploration  and  from  the  reports 
of  others  who  have  made  investigations,  not  more  than  half  a 
dozen  graves  out  of  several  hundred  opened,  have  yielded  speci- 
mens of  any  sort.  This  is  not  in  accordance  with  Shawnee  cus- 
toms in  the  sepulchers  of  Tennessee  or  Illinois, 

So  far  as  known,  no  stone  graves  as  complicated  and  diverse 
in  structure  as  these  exist  in  other  localities. 

VILLAGE    SITES. 

Near  Madisonville  is  an  extensive  aboriginal  village-site  and 
burial  ground.  Careful  explorations  carried  on  by  the  Madisonville 
Society,  in  1878-80,  yielded  abundant  results.  More  than  five  hundred 
skeletons  were  exhumed,  many  peculiar  methods  of  burial  being  noted 
among  them.  In  a  large  number  some  parts  of  the  frame  were  miss- 
ing; in  others  the  bones  were  mingled  confusedly — indicating  that  the 
burials  had  taken  place  after  the  flesh  was  decayed  or  had  otherwise 
been  removed  from  the  bones.  There  were  discovered  with  the  skel- 
etons, about  the  hut-sites,  and  in  the  ash-pits,  various  articles  of  pottery; 
a  considerable  number  of  pipes;  a  great  many  bone  implements  and  uten- 
sils; some  shell  ornaments;  about  a  hundred  objects  of  copper;  many 
articles  of  flint  and  other  stone ;  and  a  vast  amount  of  kitchen  refuse. 

A  peculiar  discovery  at  this  place  was  a  large  number — considerably 
more  than  two  hundred  —  of  excavations,  which,  for  want  of  a  better 
descriptive  name,  are  termed  ash-pits.  They  are  circular,  or  well-like, 
usually  about  three  feet  in  diameter,  and  from  four  and  a  half  to  six  feet 
deep ;  though  one  was  found  which  extended  to  a  depth  of  over  eight 
feet.  A  fair  sample  of  their  formation  may  be  seen  in  figure  131  CJour. 
Cin.  Ill,  1,  p.  56,  fig.  12). 

A  singular  departure  from  the  usual  type  is  shown  in  figure  132 
(Jour.  Cin.  Ill,  1,  p.  66,  fig.  23),  in  which  a  very  large  pit  is  divided  by 
about  six  inches  of  clay;  in  the  bottom  of  one  compartm.ent  several 
bushels  of  carbonized  corn,  both  shelled  and  in  the  ear.  was  found. 

Another  variation  from  the  regular  form,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  is 
seen  in  figure  133  (Jour.  Cin.  Ill,  3,  p.  205,  fig.  32.)  Here  a  complete 
skeleton  was  found  on  the  undisturbed  earth,   with  the  usual  stratified 


Village  Site  at  Madisonville, 


407 


i 


LEAF     MOLD 
5(  ALLUVIAL    SOI  L 
18.  IN. 


ASHES     . 
ANIMAL    REMAINS 

12,  IN. 


CLAY  OR  SAND 


acHn^iaia 


SAND  ASHES  &  UN  10  SHEtLS 
6.    IN. 


VERY  PURE    GREY  ASHES 


12,    TN. 


Figure  131  —  Refuse-pit,  Madisonville  Village-site. 


Figure  132  —  Refuse-pit  Containing  a  Quantity  of  Corn,  Madisonville. 


408 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


contents  above  it.  Of  this,  Mr.  Lowe  says  :-'The  discovery  of  human 
remains  m  undisturbed  position  at  the  bottom  of  this  ash-pit,  furnishes 
some  clue  to  the  purpose  of  these  excavations,  and  favors'  the  view 
*  *  *  that  they  were  probably  places  for  temporary  burial  from 
which  the  human  remains  have  been  removed  for  interment  in  some 
of  the  numerous  sepulchral  tumuli." 


Figure  133  —  Refuse-pit  Containing  Human  Skeleton,  Madisonville. 

"  Neither  the  sides  nor  the  bottoms  [of  these  pits]  show  any  traces 
of  the^  action  of  fire,  and  it  is  apparent  that  the  ashes  were  deposited  as 
ashes/'  and  so  with  the  other  contents.  "In  several  instances,  three  or 
four  skeletons  have  been  exhumed,  overlying  each  other  at  different 
depths."  The  excavations  by  the  society  were  always  carried  to  the 
undisturbed  gravel;  below  this  no  skeletons  or  relics  have  been  found. 
The  natural  level  of  this  gravel  appears,  though  it  is  not  so  stated,  to  be 
about  three  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground;  so  that  the  pits 
extend  some  little  distance  into  it. 


Use  of  Underground  Granaries  by  Modern  Indians.     409 

"  Among  all  the  numerous  relics  found  *  *  *  nothing  has  yet 
been  discovered  in  situ  which  shows  any  evidence  of  association  with 
European  races;  and  while  many  of  the  implements  are  similar  in  form 
and  material  to  those  of  the  so-called  '  Mound  Builders,'  and  pieces  of 
copper  and  marine  shells  indicate  commercial  intercourse  with  distant 
nations  or  tribes,  neither  ornament  nor  artistic  design  can  be  traced  to 
any  European  source.  This  fact,  in  addition  to  the  age  of  the  forest  trees, 
beneath  which  several  of  the  skeletons  have  been  found,  places  the  age 
of  these  remains  at  a  date  prior  to  the  earliest  French  or  Spanish 
explorers  of  America ;  how  much  older  than  this  is  purely  a  matter  of 
conjecture."  —  Lowe. 

The  pits  could  not  have  been  temporary  burial  places,  as 
surmised  by  Mr.  Lowe,  for  the  ashes  were  undisturbed  in  all 
that  were  examined,  showing  that  they  were  never  opened  after 
being  filled.  So  few  skeletons  were  found  in  them  that  a 
more  probable  explanation  of  their  purpose  may  be  found  in  a 
practice  common  to  modern  tribes  over  a  wide  extent  of  ter- 
ritory. 

Quotes  from  "  New  England  Prospect." — "  Their  corne  being  ripe, 
they  gather  it,  and  drying  it  hard  in  the  Sunne,  conveigh  it  to  their  barns, 
which  be  great  holes  digged  in  the  ground  in  form  of  a  brass  pot,  seeled 
with  rinds   of  trees,   wherein  they  put  their   corne."  —  Schoolcraft,   399. 

"  The  Iroquois  were  accustomed  to  bury  their  surplus  corn,  and 
also  their  charred  green  corn,  in  caches,  in  which  the  former  would 
preserve  uninjured  through  the  year,  and  the  latter  for  a  much  longer 
period.  *  *  *  Pits  of  charred  corn  are  still  found  near  ancient  settle- 
ments. Cured  venison  and  other  meats  were  buried  in  the  same  manner." 
—  Iroquois,  319. 

"  In  the  county  of  Onondaga  I  examined  the  remains  of  a  large 
town,  which  was  obviously  indicated  by  large  spots  of  black  mould  in 
regular  intervals  of  a  few  paces  distant,  in  which  I  observed  bones  of 
animals,  ashes,  carbonized  beans  or  grains  of  Indian  corn,  denoting  the 
residence  of  human  beings.  This  town  must  have  extended  at  least  one 
mile  from  east  to  west,  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  north  to 
south.  A  town  covering  upwards  of  five  hundred  acres  must  have  con- 
tained a  population  greatly  transcending  all  our  ideas  of  credibility."  — 
Clinton,  5,  condensed. 

"  The  first  feature  which  attracts  notice  upon  entering  [these 
enclosures]  is  the  number  of  pits  or  excavations  in  the  earth,  usually  at 
the  points  which  are  most  elevated  and  dry.  *  *  *  They  are  usually 
from  three  to  four,  but  sometimes  six  to  eight  feet  in  depth,  and  of  pro- 
portionate size  at  the  top.  *  *  *  They  are  the  caches  in  which  the 
former  occupants  of  these  works  deposited  their  stores.  Parched  corn, 
now  completely  carbonized  by  long  exposure,  is  to  be  discovered  in  con- 
siderable abundance  in  many  of  them.     *     *     *     Traces  of  the  bark  and 


410  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

thin  strips  of  wood,  by  wliich  the  deposits  were  surrounded,  are  alsa 
frequently  to  be  found."  —  Squier,  N.  Y,,  12. 

In  1679,  La  Salle  descended  the  Kankakee  river,  a  tributary  of  the 
Illinois.  Thirty  leagues  above  Lake  Peoria,  "  they  reached  an  Indian  vil- 
lige  of  several  hundred  cabins,  but  destitute  of  inhabitants,  probably  yet 
out  on  their  fall  hunt.  Their  cottages  are  described  as  made  of  great 
pieces  of  timber,  interlaced  with  branches  and  covered  with  bark.  The 
insides  and  floors  were  covered  with  mats.  Every  cottage  had  two  apart- 
ments, and  under  them  a  cave  or  cellar  where  they  preserved  their  Indian 
corn."  —  Hildreth,  7. 

"  The  modern  village  was  a  cluster  of  houses.  *  *  *  ]\Jq  attempt 
was  made  at  a  street,  *  *  *  two  houses  seldom  fronting  the  same 
line."  —  Iroquois,  315. 

"  The  Omahas  always  lived  in  permanent  villages  of  mud  lodges. 
The  lodges  were  often  quite  large  and  could  hold  a  company  of  two 
or  three  hundred.  Each  family  had  outside  the  lodge  a  cache,  and  some 
of  the  families  would  have  two.  These  caches  would  be  used  some- 
times for  two  or  three  years  as  a  sort  of  store  house  for  various  articles. 
When  out  of  repair  a  new  one  would  be  built  close  beside  it.  The  old 
caches  were  used  for  ashpits.  The  accumulations  of  ashes  in  the  entire 
fireplace  (a  circular  depression  in  the  center  of  the  lodge)  would  be 
cleared  and  the  ashes  thrown  in  the  pit.  So  also  the  bones  and  refuse 
of  eating,  and  of  feasts,  and  the  broken  implements  and  weapons,  worn- 
out  moccasins,  and  other  articles.  When  the  pit  was  filled  up  it  was  closed 
over  and  another  one  taken.  The  sites  of  the  old  villages  are  honey- 
combed with  these  caches."  —  Fletcher,   XVI,  357,   condensed. 

The  Mandans  dried  their  corn  and  packed  it  in  caches,  "holes  dug 
in  the  ground  six  or  seven  feet  deep.  *  *  *  Even  dried  meat  and 
pemmican  are  placed  in  these  caches  being  packed  tight  around  the  sides 
with  prairie  grass."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  122. 


The  overflow  bottom  at  Fort  Ancient  shows  three  distinct  periods 
of  occupation,  all  marked  by  "great  quantities  of  burnt  stone,  ashes, 
charcoal,  fragments  of  pottery,  bones  of  animals  and  birds."  These  were 
not  in  continuous  strata,  but  were  formed  of  refuse-heaps  occurring  at 
varying  intervals,  the  intervening  spaces  free  of  remains.  "  Some  of  the 
ash-beds  were  small  —  such  as  would  result  from  a  single  camp-fire ;  others 
contained  several  bushels  of  ashes,  bones,  etc.,  and  covered  an  area  of 
fifty  or  sixty  square  feet.  In  several  places  the  earth  was  burned  to  a 
red  color  extending  to  a  depth  of  five  or  six  inches,  while  a  pile  of 
material  to  one  side  of  it  indicated  that  the  spot  had  been  used  for  a 
considerable  time.  As  the  ashes  accumulated  and  became  inconvenient 
they  were  scraped  away  and  the  fire  continued  on  the  same  ground." 
The  lower  stratum  presented  no  deposit  more  than  6  inches  thick  or  nearer 
than  five  and  a  half  feet  to  the  surface.  Above  this  was  a  few  inches 
of  earth  free  from  remains ;    then  came  a  second  layer  of  debris.     "  Thej. 


Character  of  Remains  on  Village  Sites.  411 

remains  found  at  the  level  of  the  second  village  site  far  exceeded  in 
amount  those  from  both  the  others."  From  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  of 
clean  earth  separated  this  from  the  third  deposit,  which  was  about  six 
inches  in  thickness ;  then  came  two  feet  of  sandy  loam,  to  the  present 
surface.  "  The  greatest  depth  below  the  surface  at  which  any  relic  was 
found  in  the  three  village  sites  was  six  and  a  half  feet.  The  specimen 
was  a  small,  highly-polished  celt  of  "  greenstone  "  in  nowise  different  from 
surface  specimens. —  Moorehead,  Chap.  13. 

The  large  mound  opposite  Bourneville  (shown  in  figure  103), 
is  surrounded  by  a  village-site.  This  was  given  a  slight  prelim- 
inary examination  by  Moorehead. 

After  describing  his  excavations,  which  resulted  in  the  dis- 
covery of  great  quantities  of  broken  pottery  and  other  kitchen 
refuse,  some  implements,  and  a  few  other  specimens,  Moorehead 
says : — 

"  The  character  of  the  relics  and  the  lack  of  high  aboriginal  art 
at  this  place  are  taken  as  evidence  of  the  primitive  character  of  the 
villagers.  I  do  not  think  they  were  the  same  people  who  erected  the 
earthwork  or  the  same  tribe.  At  Hopewell's,  Hopetown,  Harness's  and 
Mound  City  fragments  of  elaborately  carved  shells,  rings,  polished  pipes, 
both  effigy  and  platform,  etc.,  have  been  found.  None  of  these  truly 
polished,  ceremonial,  or  artistic  objects  were  found  in  the  ash  pits  or  on 
the  habitation  sites  of  the  Baum  village  site.  The  place  is  interesting  in 
that  it  shows  a  lower  degree  of  culture  than  that  evinced  on  the  sites 
above  mentioned.  *  *  *  j  ^^  convinced  that  [this  occupation]  ante- 
dates the  construction  of  the  works.  I  do  not  think  it  is  of  the  same 
historic  period  and  if  Indian,  of  some  tribe  which  knew  little  or  naught 
of  agriculture."  —  Field  Work,  VH.,  152. 

There  is  much  more  to  the  same  effect;  all  based  upon  the 
fact  that  the  dwellers  on  this  site  failed  to  throw  all  their  choicest 
treasures  on  the  scrap-heap.  The  finer  specimens  found  at  the 
places  cited  in  contrast  with  this  were  in  mounds,  in  connection 
with  burials  or  the  supposed  "  sacrifices  ".  Deductions  and  con- 
clusions such  as  the  above  are  utterly  worthless,  because  they  have 
no  basis  in  fact ;  and  they  are  misleading  because  it  is  assumed, 
or  at  least  implied,  that  a  people  would  exert  the  same  care  and 
labor  in  making  a  common  domestic  article  appear  ornate  and 
beautiful,  as  in  the  manufacture  of  a  valuable  ornament  or  a 
necessary  adjunct  of  an  important  ceremony.  Assertions  as  to 
prior  or  subsequent  occupancy,  superior  or  inferior  culture,  etc.^ 
founded  on  such  distinctions,  are  without  the  slisfhtest  value. 


412  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


CEMETERIES. 

The  average  duration  of  life  in  modern  communities  is 
•accepted  as  about  33  years.  It  follows  that  a  number  equal  to 
three  times  the  average  population  of  any  place  must  die  within 
a  century.  The  same  figures  probably  hold  good  for  prehis- 
toric people;  consequently,  it  is  obvious  that,  large  as  may  be 
the  aggregate  of  mound  interments,  only  a  small  proportion  of 
the  dead  were  thus  disposed  of. 

"  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  mounds  are  the  sole  cemeteries 
of  the  race  that  built  them.  They  were  probably  erected  only  over  the 
bodies  of  the  chieftains  and  priests,  perhaps  also  over  the  bodies  of 
distinguished  families.  The  graves  of  the  great  mass  of  the  ancient 
people  who  thronged  our  valleys,  and  the  silent  monuments  of  whose  toil 
are  seen  on  every  hand,  are  not  thus  signalized."  —  S.  &  D.,  171. 

Scarcely  a  day  passes  that  such  graves  are  not  discovered 
somewhere  in  the  State.  They  are  most  frequent  in  gravel  beds 
and  alluvial  lands,  but  also  occur  in  various  other  situations.  No 
definite  order  is  to  be  observed  among  them ;  in  many  cases  it 
appears  that  the  quickest  and  easiest  way  of  putting  them  out 
of  sight  was  adopted.  Occasionally  a  large  number  will  be 
removed  from  a  very  limited  area  in  the  course  of  road  con- 
struction or  similar  work;  in  such  instances  the  bones  are  often 
in  confusion,  as  if  the  bodies  had  been  thrown  in  carelessly,  or 
denuded  of  flesh  before  burial.  These  cases  are  usually  her- 
alded as  the  discovery  of  an  ancient  battle-field,  where  the  sur- 
vivors had  hastily  thrown  all  their  dead  into  a  pit  before  decamp- 
ing. Aside  from  the  fact  that  Indians  were  never  known  to 
bury  their  slain  in  this  manner,  the  bones  of  women,  children,  and 
very  old  persons,  in  connection  with  the  plain  evidence  that  the 
burials  were  made  at  different  times,  disprove  any  such  suppo- 
sition. 

But  the  great  majority  of  them  were  buried  in  ordinary 
graves.  A  few  large  cemeteries  are  known ;  their  discovery  has 
usually  been  accidental.  The  soil  above  them  may  be  cultivated 
for  many  years  without  a  suspicion  of  what  lies  beneath  until 
denudation  by  a  freshet,  excavation  for  a  cellar  or  foundation, 
the  cutting  of  a  ditch,  or  some  more  trivial  cause  reveals  them. 
As  a  rule,  there  is  but  one  skeleton  in  a  grave ;  but  the  latter  are 
scattered  in  confusion,  sometimes  several  feet  apart,  again  three 


Shell  Heaps.  4ia 

or  four  of  them  overlapping  or  merging  into  one  another. 
Remains  of  this  nature  are  sometimes  found  in  river  bottoms 
under  several  feet  of  silt,  that  is  even  now  subject  to  overflow. 

They  are  generally  dispersed  among  the  remains  of  huts  on 
the  site  of  a  village,  though  sometimes  at  a  distance  from  any 
apparent  signs  of  occupation.  Villages  may,  nevertheless,  be 
close  at  hand,  awaiting  the  advent  of  some  one  who  can  find 
them. 

Very  frequently  it  appears  that  houses  were  placed  wherever 
most  convenient  to  the  builders,  and  graves  dug  at  random  in 
any  vacant  space.  The  apparent  lack  of  order  may  result  from 
moving  the  domicile  occasionally;  with  such  a  system  of  houses 
and  house-keeping  as  seems  to  have  prevailed,  house-moving 
would  be  easier  than  house-cleaning.  In  the  lapse  of  time, 
too,  the  position  of  graves  would  be  disregarded  or  forgotten, 
and  new  interments  encroach  upon  the  space  of  those  previ- 
ously made.  In  addition  to  this  probable  shifting  of  wigwams,  or 
removal  from  a  hut,  the  entire  community  may  have  moved  its 
quarters.     With  the  Canadian  Indians 

"  No  manure  was  used ;  but,  at  intervals  of  from  ten  to  thirty  years, 
when  the  soil  was  exhausted,  and  firewood  distant,  the  village  was  aban- 
doned and  a  new  one  built."  —  Jesuits,  xxx. 

There  is  no  reason  why  they  may  not  have  found  them- 
selves back  on  the  old  site  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  genera- 
tions, if  it  offered  superior  advantages  of  some  kind. 

SHELL   HEAPS. 

At  many  village-sites  along  some  of  the  rivers  mussel  shells 
are  abundant.  In  most  places  they  are  scattered  about  through 
the  soil  in  the  same  manner  as  bones,  broken  pottery,  and  other 
refuse,  though  they  are  sometimes  in  a  low  mound  or  spread  in 
a  stratum  several  inches  thick  over  a  considerable  area.  Those 
on  or  near  the  surface  have  largely  yielded  to  the  destructive 
influence  of  farming  utensils  and  continual  fresh  exposure ; 
others,  covered  by  a  greater  depth  of  earth,  are  still  in  condition 
to  be  preserved.  Very  few  notices  of  them  appear  in  archaeologi- 
cal writings ;  the  greatest  quantity  recorded  at  one  spot  is  on 
Elennerhassett's  Island,  near  Parkersburg. 


414  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  largest  shell  heap  on  the  island  near  the  center,  *  *  *  jg 
1,125  feet  long  by  200  feet  in  width  at  the  west  end  and  three  feet  in 
width  at  the  eastern  extremity.  *  *  *  fj^^  width  has  been  reduced 
seventy  feet"  in  the  recollection  of  persons  living  there  at  the  time  the 
description  was  written.  It  varies  from  four  to  twelve  inches  in  thick- 
ness. Other  shell  heaps  exist,  the  largest  half  an  acre  in  extent. — 
McLean;  Blennerhassett,  761. 

No  doubt  mussels  were  used  for  food.  But  a  vast  num- 
ber of  them  would  be  required,  as  well,  to  supply  the  profusion  of 
pearls  found  in  mounds  and  graves,  as  only  a  very  small  per- 
centage of  them  contain  the  gems.  Perhaps  the  mollusks  were 
sought  for  both  purposes. 

Garcillasso  says  in  his  "  Conquest  of  Florida  "  that  "  the  unios  and 
various  mussels  of  the  fresh-water  streams  were  eagerly  collected  and 
opened  with  a  view  to  securing  the  pearls  which  they  contain  and  for  the 
purpose  of  food."  —  Jones,  325. 

FUNNEL-SHAPED   PITS. 

In  the  Scioto  and  Miami  valleys  are  several  peculiar  excava- 
tions, having  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone.  Their  object  is 
entirely  unknown.  Two  are  reported  in  Hamilton  county.  One, 
near  Newtown, 

"  has  a  diameter  of  sixty  feet  at  the  top,  depth  in  the  center  twelve 
feet;  six  feet  from  the  edge  of  the  pit  is  a  well-marked  embankment 
conforming  to  the  circular  edge  of  the  pit.  The  embankment  is  two 
feet  high,  eight  feet  wide  at  the  base,  and  is  interrupted  by  a  gateway 
or  opening  fifteen  feet  wide  at  the  east."  —  Howe:   II.  23. 

The  space  between  the  edge  and  embankment  of  this  pit  is 
not  present  in  any  other  known.  It  may  formerly  have  existed  in 
all,  and  worn  away;  but  there  is  now  a  uniform  slope  from  top 
to  bottom  on  the  inner  side.  The  "  gateway  "  seems  unique ;  the 
embankment  in  others,  where  it  has  not  been  leveled,  forms  a 
continuous  ring.  In  level  bottom  land,  there  is  one  a  mile  west 
of  Bainbridge,  at  the  ''Trefoil"  (Figure  88);  one  with  the 
enclosure  opposite  Bourneville;  one  on  the  brink  of  the  fourth 
terrace  near  the  mound  described  on  page  377.  These  have 
been  plowed  over  until  their  original  dimensions  are  uncertain; 
they  are  probably  80  to  90  feet  across  and  10  to  15  feet  deep, 
measuring  on  a  line  from  top  to  top  of  the  bank. 

Two  are  known  on  low  hills.  One  just  west  of  Spruce  Hill 
Fort,  on  the  edge  of  a  long  ridge,  is  80  feet  across  and  was  about 


Rock  Shelters,  or  Cave  Dwellings.  415 

twelve  feet  deep  before  the  owner  partially  filled  it.  The  other  is 
on  the  quarry  hill  at  Piketon.  It  is  about  150  feet  across  and  is 
said  to  have  been  twenty-five  feet  deep  when  first  known,  but 
this  is  probably  an  exaggeration. 

Near  Piketon,  also,  is  a  peculiar  structure  which  from  the 
outside  looks  like  a  truncated  conical  mound  ten  feet  high;  but 
on  ascending  it  there  is  seen  a  conical  hollow  extending  to  the 
bottom  of  the  structure.  It  stands  in  a  depression  on  a  long 
ridge  so  narrow  that  the  margin  of  the  mound  reaches  several 
feet  down  the  slope  on  either  side.  In  the  other  two  directions 
the  ground  rises  to  a  considerable  elevation  above  this  point. 
The  only  suggestion  that  has  been  made  offered  in  explanation 
of  these  pits  is  that  they  mark  the  sites  of  underground  houses  or 
store-room.s.  Those  in  level  low-lands  may  have  been  so  utilized ; 
but  the  others,  on  hill-tops,  though  convenient  to  village-sites, 
are  not  easy  of  access  or  in  suitable  situations  for  such  purpose. 

ROCK   SHELTERS. 

The  few  small  caverns  in  limestone  rock  in  Ohio  show  no 
indications  that  they  formed  permanent  living  places,  although 
the  aborigines  may  have  taken  refuge  in  them  occasionally.  In 
the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  where  sandstone  cliffs  abound,  evi- 
dences of  such  occupancy  are  rather  frequent  in  the  ''  caves  "  at 
their  base.  These  *'  caves  "  are  only  depressions  eroded  in  the 
face  of  the  cliff  by  rain,  frost,  and  wind,  and  are  usually  but  a 
few  feet  in  depth.    Three  of  them  will  serve  as  examples  of  all. 

"  The  Elyria  Shelter  Cave "  was  "  about  fifty  feet  in  length  by 
fifteen  feet  broad."  On  clean  sand  at  the  bottom  of  this  cave,  under 
the  refuse  characteristic  of  Indian  camps,  were  three  skeletons.  "  The 
position  of  the  skeletons  indicated  that  they  were  crushed  by  a  large 
slab  of  the  overhanging  sandstone  falling  upon  the  party  while  they  were 
asleep  at  the  back  part  of  the  grotto.  *  *  *  Judging  from  the  appear- 
ance of  the  bones  and  the  depth  of  the  accumulation  over  them,  two 
thousand  years  may  have  elapsed  since  the  human  skeletons  were  laid 
on  the  floor  of  this  cave."  —  Howe:   II,  378. 

The  "  two  thousand  years  "  is  only  a  random  guess. 
"  Ash  Cave  "  has  probably  been  more  often  referred  to  than 
any  other.    It  is  in  the  southern  part  of  Hocking  county. 

"This  cave  is  simply  a  recess  under  a  high  sandrock  (of  the 
Waverly  sandstone  series)  bordering  a  small  stream.     The  shelter  appears 


416  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

to  have  been  a  very  perfect  one,  since  the  ashes  are  very  dry  and  appear 
never  to  have  been  wet.  The  ash-heap  is  about  one  hundred  feet  long  by 
about  thirty  feet  wide,  and  where  our  trench  was  dug,  nearly  two  and  one- 
half  feet  deep.  A  trench  was  dug  upon  a  point  a  little  east  of  the  ash 
belt  to  the  back  wall  of  the  shelter ;  little  was  found  at  first  except  ashes, 
with  an  occasional  fragment  of  a  food  bone  and  chip  of  flint,  but  as 
the  wall  rock  was  approached  we  came  upon  a  well-defined  refuse 
heap  of  bones,  etc.  It  was  a  confused  mass  of  sticks  for  arrows,  stalks 
of  coarse  grasses,  food  bones  in  great  variety,  bits  of  pottery,  flints,  nuts, 
corn-cobs,  etc.,  etc.  This  layer  of  refuse  was  from  four  to  six  inches  below 
the  surface,  and  covered  with  ashes.  Below  this  refuse  layer  was  the  chief 
deposit  of  ashes  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  feet  in  depth,  according  to 
the  inequalities  of  the  sand  floor  underneath.  About  three  feet  from  the 
back  wall  of  the  'cave'  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  ashes,  we  found  a 
skeleton  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation,  evidently  an  Indian.  There  were 
traces  of  bark  over  it  to  protect  the  body  from  ashes,  but  the  bark  was. 
much  decayed.  The  body,  doubtless,  had  been  buried  in  a  sitting  posture, 
as  the  bones  were  found  compactly  together,  the  head  resting  upon  the 
others.  Apparently  the  body  had  been  placed  against  a  small  loose  rock 
and  in  a  cavity  in  the  sand.    There  were  no  implements  of  any  kind. 

"  On  a  projecting  point  of  the  rear  wall  are  several  artificial  vertical 
holes  in  the  rock.  The  largest  hole  is  six  inches  in  diameter  and  two 
and  a  half  feet  deep  to  loose  stones  evidently  thrown  in.  Its  full  depth  is 
unknown.  Another  is  four  inches  m  diameter  and  several  feet  deep.  The 
earliest  settlers  found  these  holes  as  they  now  appear."  —  Andrews, 
Cave,  48,  condensed. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  these  are  only  "pot-holes,"  due  to 
the  action  of  water  at  some  former  time. 

In  a  cave  in  Summit  county,  "  after  removing  a  few  inches  of  veget- 
able mold  a  mixture  of  ashes  and  earth  was  reached,  extending  to  the  depth 
of  from  four  and  a  half  to  five  feet,  at  the  bottom  filling  fissures  and  cover- 
ing rocks,  fragments  that  originally  partly  occupied  the  floor  of  the  shelter 
and  which  the  occupants  did  not  attempt  to  remove.  *  *  *  The  whole 
of  this  material  was  filled  with  the  evidences  of  the  place  as  a  human 
residence  —  pottery,  bones,  shells  and  stone  implements.  In  the  deposit 
of  these  there  was  no  sudden  transiti®n ;  the  bones  near  the  top  were 
in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  those  that  had  not  been  changed  by  the 
fire  not  blackened  but  colored  yellow  by  lapse  .of  time.  These  became 
darker  and  less  abundant  as  the  excavation  was  carried  deeper,  and 
substantially  disappeared  before  the  bottom  of  the  excavation  was  reached, 
showing  that  the  earliest  occupancy  was  so  long  ago  that  the  deposited 
bones  in  the  dry  shelter  had  been  consumed  by  time.  Over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  fragments  of  pottery  were  collected ;  *  *  *  it  was  all  coarse, 
without  any  attempt  at  ornamentation.  *  *  *  fhe  stone  implements 
were  abundant,  but  most  of  them  crude  and  coarse.  *  *  *  The  most 
abundant  of  the    [latter]    were  cutting  tools   or  knives.     *     *     *     Not  a 


Inscriptions  on  Rocks.  *  417 

single  article  was  found  designed  for  ornament,  nor  was  there  any 
attempt  to  ornament  any  of  the  articles  found."  All  the  bones  found 
were  those  of  animals  existing  in  Ohio  a  century  ago.  The  shelter  itself 
was  "composed  of  two  large  blocks  twenty  or  more  feet  in  diameter, 
separated  about  fifteen  feet,  with  a  huge  block  rising  upon  the  top  at  the 
height  of  about  twelve  feet."  —  Read,  Shelter. 

The  ends  of  this  shelter  could  easily  have  been  closed  with 
brush  and  weeds,  making  a  warm  and  dry  abode.  That  it  had 
been  in  use  for  a  long  time  is  proven  by  the  amount  of  dust  and 
ashes  that  had  accumulated. 

ROCK    INSCRIPTIONS. 

"  In  many  places  within  the  State  rude  effigies  of  man  and  animals 
have  been  observed,  chiseled  or  picked  into  the  natural  surface  of  the 
rocks.  They  are  most  numerous  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  State,  where 
the  grits  of  the  coal  series  furnish  large  blocks  or  perpendicular  faces 
of  sand  rock  which  are  easily  cut,  and  which  are,  at  the  same  time, 
imperishable.  These  surfaces  are  never  prepared  for  inscriptions  by 
artificial  smoothing.  The  figures  are  sunk  into  the  stone  by  some  sharp- 
pointed  tool  like  a  pick,  which  has  left  the  impression  of  its  point  similar 
to  the  rough  hewn  stone  of  our  masonry.  This  tool  has  not  been  found 
in  the  form  of  a  pick  and  was  probably  only  a  small  angular  stone, 
held  in  the  hand  and  used  as  a  chipper  until  the  points  and  angles  were 
worn  off.  *  *  *  How  ancient  the  intaglios  are  can  not  yet  be  deter- 
mined, but  there  is  one  instance  at  Independence,  Cuyahoga  county, 
where  soil  had  accumulated  over  them  to  a  depth  of  one  to  one  and  a 
half  feet,  on  which  were  growing  trees  of  the  usual  size  in  that  region. 
*  *  *  The  investigations  hitherto  made  show  them  to  be  of  the  style 
and  for  the  purpose  of  pictorial  writing,  such  as  are  made  by  the  red 
men  of  America.  They  are  found  on  rocks,  trees  and  sheltered  banks 
of  clay  throughout  the  United  States,  none  of  which  are  yet  proven  to 
be  the  works  of  the  Mound  Builders.  In  none  of  them  are  the  characters 
alphabetical,  but  always  symbolical  or  pictorial,  [and  consequendy  of] 
little  value  as  records."  —  Cent.  Rep.,  84-8. 

Catlin  says  in  regard  to  the  Indian  tribes  of  his  acquaint- 
ance :  — 

"  I  have  been  unable  to  find  anything  like  a  system  of  hieroglyphic 
writing  amongst  them;  yet,  their  picture  zvritings  on  the  rocks,  and  on 
their  robes,  approach  somewhat  towards  it.  Of  the  former,  I  have  seen 
a  great  many  in  the  course  of  my  travels;  and  I  have  satisfied  myself  that 
they  are  generally  the  totems  (symbolic  nam.es)  merely,  of  Indians  who 
have  visited  these  places,  and  from  a  similar  feeling  of  vanity,  that 
everywhere  belongs  to  man  much  alike,  have  been  in  the  habit  of  record- 
ing their  names  or  symbols,    such  as  birds,    beasts  or  reptiles.     *    *    * 

27 


418  '      Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

At  the  Red  Pipe  Stone  Quarry,  where  there  are  a  vast  number  of  these 
inscriptions  cut  in  the  solid  rock,  and  other  places  also  [I  have]  seen 
the  Indian  at  work,  recording  his  totem  amongst  those  of  more  ancient 
dates ;  which  convinced  me  that  they  had  been  progressively  made,  at 
different  ages,  and  without  any  system  that  could  be  called  hieroglyphic 
writing. 

"  The  paintings  on  their  robes  are  in  many  cases  exceedingly  curious, 
and  generally  represent  the  exploits  of  their  military  lives,  which  they 
are  proud  of  recording  in  this  way  and  exhibiting  on  their  backs  as  they 
walk."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  II,  246. 

"  The  great  defect  of  this  kind  of  record  [picture  writing]  is  that 
it  can  only  be  understood  within  a  very  limited  circle.  It  *  *  merely 
suggests  some  event  [and  the  inscriptions]  can  only  convey  their  full 
meaning  to  those  who  know  by  heart  already  the  composition  they  refer  to." 
—  Mankind,  84. 

Squier  and  Davis  describe  and  figure  rock-inscriptions  in 
Cabell  county,  West  Virginia ;  near  Steubenville,  Ohio ;  and  men- 
tion others  at  Catlettsburg,  Kentucky,  and  in  Scioto  and  Lawrence 
counties,  Ohio.    They  attribute  them  to  the  modern  Indians. 

"  The  lines  *  *  *  do  not  appear  to  have  been  chiseled,  but 
pecked  into  the  stone.  Where  hard  iron  seams  occur  in  the  rock,  a  narrow 
ridge  is  left, —  the  rude  instruments  having  evidently  been  inadequate  to 
cut  or  break  through  them."  —  S.  &  D.,  293,  et  seq. 

On  the  Ohio  side  of  the  river,  one  mile  above  Wellsville,  there 
is  a  large  group  of  sculptures,  on  a  f^at  sand  rock  of  the  coal  series,  scarred 
by  floating  ice  and  flood  wood.  "  These  figures  are  only  visible  in  low 
water,  as  they  are  only  two  or  three  feet  above  the  extreme  low  stage 
of  the  river.  *  *  *  j^  one  respect  they  differ  from  all  others  which 
I  have  examined.  They  are  made  in  double  outline,  and  not  by  a  single 
deep  channel.  The  outlines  are  a  series  of  dots  made  with  a  round, 
pointed  instrument,  seldom  more  than  half  an  inch  deep."  Among  the 
objects  represented  are  a  rattlesnake,  a  turtle  (?),  bird,  fish-like  figure, 
and  human  feet. —  Cent.  Rep.,  104. 

The  so-called  "  Barnesville  Track  Rocks  "  are  shown  in  the 
three  figures  134  (Cent.  Rep.,  plate  I)  ;  135  (Cent.  Rep.,  plate 
II),  which  is  an  enlargement  of  some  of  the  characters  in  the 
preceding  figure;  and  136  (Cent.  Rep.,  plate  III). 

"  This  coarse  grit  is  so  nearly  imperishable  that  whatever  distinct 
marks  were  originally  cut  upon  it  are  doubtless  there  now  and  are  not 
perceptibly  injured  by  exposure."  —  Cent.   Rep.,  89. 

*'The  inscriptions  near  Newark,  shown  in  figure  [137  (Cent.  Rep., 
plate  IV)],  originally  covered  a  vertical  face  of  conglomerate  rock,  fifty 
or  sixty  feet  in  length  by  six  or  eight  feet  in  height.  This  rock  is  soft, 
and,  therefore,  the  figures  are  easily  erased.     As  the  place  was  partially 


Inscriptions  on  Rocks. 


419 


HOWW 


%B^    ^   /^   (MO 


^^-^^ 


>H^T 


A    db 


»  ^AST 


^st;^^^^?? 


a> 


SOUTH  io  Of  WKVURI 


Ficfure  134. 
One  of  the  "  Barnesville  Track  Rocks. 


420 


^Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


sheltered  from  the  weather  by  overhangs,  the  injury  done  to  them  by- 
exposure  was  not  much.  This  illustration  is  a  fac  simile  of  the  tracing 
on  muslin  in  1859.  The  rock  is  not  hard,  and  shows  signs  of  decompo- 
sition. White  settlers,  about  the  year  1810,  cut  their  names  on  this  cliff; 
many  of  these  names  are  already  obliterated.  The  straight  grooves  at 
C  and  D  are  common  in  other  rock  inscriptions.  Those  at  H,  at  a  of 
group  No.  7,  and  at  c  of  group  No.  1,  are  rare  in  Ohio.    Under  this 


Figure  135  —  Some  Details  of  Figure  134,  Enlarged. 

cliff  is   a  deep  deposit  of  kitchen  refuse."  —  Cent.   Rep.,   94,  condensed. 

In  figure  138  (Cent.  Rep.,  plate  V)  is  shown  "  The  Independence 
Slab,"  so  named  from  the  village  near  which  it  was  found.  "  The  rock 
on  which  [this]  inscription  occurs  is  the  grindstone  grit.  *  *  *  j^ 
is  almost  pure  silex,  and  possesses  the  property  of  resisting  atmospheric 
changes  to  a  remarkable  degree.  '^  *  *  The  durability  of  the  rock 
and  the  fact  that  these  markings  were  covered  with  earth,  explains  why 
they  have  been  so  finely  preserved."  —  Cent.  Rep.,  100, 

"  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  pursue  the  study  of  rock 
inscriptions  here,    I   give  the   location   of  a  number   of  them   which   are 


Inscriptions  on  Rocks, 


421 


UOKTH 


H,   ^ 

^K^   ^ 


k 


wesT 


SOUTH 


i  OF  NflWfii 


tRST 


A  OpNUTUfiB 


Figure  136  —  One  of  the  "  Barnesville  Track  Rocks." 

easily  accessible.  *  *  *  More  thorough  researches  would  disclose  them 
iy  hundreds  in  neglected  ravines,  where  there  are  rocky  faces,  precipitous 
^walls  or  large  boulders. 


422 


Archaeoiogical  History  of  Ohio. 


Plate  IV.— Newark  Track  Rock— 1-24  op  Nature. 


?r 


-CNJ 


o 

.A        13 


^     SI 


^5;  1 


•h^ 


k- 


^ 


ttl 


Fivrare  137. 


Insctiptions  on  Rocks. 


423 


Figure  138  —  The  "  Independence  Slab 


"  LOCALITIES   OF  INSCRIBED  ROCKS. 

[Only  those  which  are  convenient  to  Ohio  readers  are  given  here.] 
"  1.    On  the  Alleghany  River,  in  Pennsylvania,  not  far  from  Brady's 
Bend,  formerly  known  as  the  *  God  Rock.' 


424  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"2.  One  mile  above  Wellsville  on  the  Ohio  River,  noUh  shore, 
upon  a  fiat  surface  of  grit  covered  at  high  water  —  wrought  in  double 
channels  by  a  pointed  tool  like  a  pick. 

"3.  South  shore  of  the  Ohio,  four  miles  above  Steubenville,  on 
sandstone  —  wrought  with  a  pointed  tool,  effigies  of  turtles,  snakes,  tracks 
of  quadrupeds,  and  human  feet,  also  a  circle  with  rays. 

"  4.  Nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  Wheeling  Creek,  below  Wheeling 
City,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Ohio. 

"5.  Sixteen  miles  up  Guyandotte  River  in  Cabell  county,  West 
Virginia. 

"  6.     On  Elk  River,  near  Charleston,  West  Virginia. 

"  7.  At  Cattlettsburg,  Kentucky,  near  the  mouth  of  Big  Sandy  on 
the  Ohio  —  now  obliterated. 

"  8.  Three  miles  above  Burlington,  Lawrence  county,  Ohio,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Ohio. 

"  9.     Near  Hanging  Rock,  on  the  river,  Lawrence  county,  Ohio. 

"  10.  A  colossal  human  head,  on  a  flat  rock,  only  visible  at  low 
water;    a  few  miles  above  Portsmouth  [on  the  Scioto.] 

"  11.  '  Turkey  foot  Rock  '  —  Maumee  City,  Lucas  county,  Ohio,  on 
a  block  of  limestone,  at  the  foot  of  the  rapids. 

"  12.  Kelly's  Island,  near  the  landing,  south  side,  on  a  block  of 
limestone. 

"  13.  On  a  boulder  of  quartzose  granite,  north  side  of  Kelly's  Island. 
—  Whittlesey,   Inscriptions,  53,  et  seq. 

There  is  also  a  very  large  sandstone  block,  covered  with 
inscriptions,  on  the  hill  overlooking  the  Monongahela,  opposite 
Greensboro,  Pennsylvania,  ten  miles  above  Brownsville. 

"  The  most  authentic  copies  of  the  Dighton  Rock  inscriptions,  when 
compared  with  that  on  the  south  shore  of  Kelly's  Island,  disclose  a 
very  close  similarity.  The  best  preserved  and  the  best  described  intaglios 
of  the  Ohio  valley  have  so  close  a  resemblance  to  both  of  the  above, 
as  to  indicate  the  use  of  a  similar  and  wide-spread  picture  language  in 
North  America." — Whittlesey,  Inscriptions,  54. 


CHAPTER  XII 


SOME  ANALOGIES   BETWEEN   THE   REMAINS  OF 

MOUND   BUILDERS   AND   THOSE   OF   MODERN 

INDIANS. 

IT    is    not    difficult    to    understand    why    so    many    extrava- 
gant    theories     are     zealously     proclaimed     and     readily 
accepted. 
"  There  is   sometimes,   it  appears   to   me,    an   unwillingness   to   look 
at  all  sides  of  objects  classed  as  ancient,  lest  something  should  be  dis- 
covered which  might  reduce  their  age  and  render  them  possibly  modern 
and  commonplace."  —  Mitchell,  18. 

"  The  charm  of  mystery  is  so  great  that  men  are  apt  to  be  carried 
away  with  it,  and  to  seek  in  the  development  of  unknown  or  improbable 
causes  for  the  solution  of  phenomena  which  are  often  to  be  found  in 
plainer  and  more  obvious  considerations.  That  this  charm  has  thrown 
its  spell,  to  some  extent,  around  the  topic  of  our  western  antiquities, 
cannot  be  denied."  —  Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  60. 

It  is  as  true  of  our  own  prehistoric  remains  as  it  is  of 
those  of  Yucatan  or  Central  America,  that 

"Most  American  writers  speak  of  ancient  monuments  from  hear- 
say *  *  *  they  never  having  taken  the  trouble  to  travel  any  distance 
to  see  them."  —  Charnay,  147. 

The  results  are  often  as  unfortunate  as  that  of  Brasseur  de 
Bourbourg,  w^ho 

"attempted  to  translate  part  of  [the  manuscript  Troana],  which 
he  has  published;  but  in  a  subsequent  work  he  confesses  that  he  began 
his  reading  at  the  wrong  end  of  the  manuscript."  —  Short,  422. 

Such  lucubrations  render  their  authors  eligible  for  adjnittance 
to  the  class  so  wittily  described  by  Lowell. 

"There  seems  to  be,  in  the  average  German  mind,  an  inability  or 
disinclination  to  see  a  thing  as  it  really  is  unless  it  be  a  matter  of  science. 
It  finds  its  keenest  pleasure  in  divining  a  profound  significance  in  the 
most  trifling  things,  and  the  number  of  mare's  nests  that  have  been 
stared  into  by  the  German  Gelehrtes  through  his  spectacles  passes  cal- 

(425) 


426  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

culation.  They  are  the  one  object  of  contemplation  that  makes  that 
singular  being  perfectly  happy,  and  they  seem  to  be  as  common  as  those 
of  the  stork."  —  Lowell,  II,  163. 

Various  fallacies  have  been  pointed  out  in  previous  pages. 
They  may  be  condensed  in  a  few  quotations  ranging  almost 
through  a  century. 

"  More  recent  examination  has  confirmed  an  opinion  previously 
formed,  that  the  works  described  in  this  publication  were  erected  by  a 
race  of  men  widely  different  from  any  type  of  North  American  Indians 
known  in  modern  times."  —  Amer.,  I,  3. 

"  The  ancestors  of  our  North  American  Indians  were  mere  hunters, 
while  the  authors  of  our  tumuli  were  shepherds  and  husbandmen." — 
Atwater,  213. 

Of  the  small  stone  sculptures  made  by  Indians  of  the  Northwest 
Coast,  "the  utmost  that  can  be  said  is,  that  they  are  elaborate,  unmean- 
ing carvings,  displaying  some  degree  of  ingenuity.  A  much  higher  rank 
can  be  claimed  for  the  mound  sculptures;  they  are  faithful  copies,  not 
distorted  caricatures,  from  nature.  So  far  as  fidelity  is  concerned,  many 
of  them  deserve  to  rank  by  the  side  of  the  best  efforts  of  the  artist- 
naturalist  of  our  own  day."  —  S.  &  D.,  272. 

Any  "  rank  can  be  claimed  "  for  anything.  A  comparison 
such  as  may  be  made  in  any  of  our  large  museums,  of  collections 
from  mounds  and  from  the  North  Pacific  Coast  Indians,  will  show 
the  emptiness  of  this  claim.  The  carvings  are  not  "  distorted 
caricatures  "  but  faithfully  carry  out  the  intentions  of  the  artists, 
as  symbolical  and  allegorical  representations. 

"  Monuments  of  a  bygone  race,  of  whose  history  no  tradition  known 
to  the  white  man  has  been  preserved  by  the  occupants  of  the  territory."  — 
Cox:  quoted  by  Foster,  113. 

"  A  broad  chasm  is  to  be  spanned  before  we  can  link  the  Mound- 
builders  to  the  North  American  Indians.  The  latter  since  known  to 
the  white  man  has  spurned  the  restraints  of  a  sedentary  life,  which 
attach  to  agriculture.  He  was  never  known  to  erect  structures  which 
should  survive  the  lapse  of  a  generation.  His  lodges  consist  of  a  few 
poles  over  which  are  stretched  barks  or  skins."  —  Foster,  347,  condensed. 

"  The  Mound  Builders  were,  in  the  distinctive  character  of  their 
structures,  as  marked  a  people  as  the  Pelasgi."  —  Foster,  97. 

"No  chief  would  dare  to  issue  an  order  to  throw  up  a  structure 
such  as  that  at  Cahokia  or  Grave  Creek ;  no  subaltern  would  engage  in 
the  work.  All  the  free  instincts  of  their  nature  would  revolt."  —  Fos- 
ter, 349,  condensed. 

After  giving  an  entirely  incorrect  description  of  the  Indians 
occupying  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States,  Foster  says : — 


Nezvspapcr  Archaeology.  427 

"  To  suppose  that  such  a  race  threw  up  the  strong  lines  of  circum- 
vallation  and  the  symmetrical  mounds  which  crown  so  many  of  our 
terraces,  is  as  preposterous,  almost,  as  to  suppose  that  they  built  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt."  —  Foster,  300. 

"  An  ancient  race,  entirely  distinct  from  the  Indian,  once  inhabited 
the  central  portion  of  the  United  States."  —  McLean,  13,  condensed. 

"  The  professor  [referring  to  Dr.  Joseph  Jones's  '  Antiquities  of 
Tennessee']  has  clearly  shown  that  the  Mound-builder  people  and  the 
Indians  were  distinct,  and  has  set  at  rest  a  question  upon  which  some  few 
doubts  were  still  entertained  by  a  certain  school  of  archaeologists,  which 
has  really  never  been  very  strong.  The  connection  with  or  identity  of  the 
Mound-builders  and  the  Toltecs  or  the  same  family  of  people,  is  also 
shown  satisfactorily."  —  Short,  65. 

Under  the  necessity  of  catering  to  a  taste  for  the  marvelous 
and  mysterious,  newspapers  and  periodicals,  taking  their  cue 
from  such  statements  or  deductions,  rise  to  heights  of  fatuity. 
Almost  daily  the  confiding  public  is  favored  with  information 
somewhat  after  the  following  fashion : — 

"relics  of  the  mound  builders. 

"  Those  who  are  engaged  in  making  collections  of  ancient  relics,  will 
read  the  following  with  interest. 

"  Mr,  recently  made  another  highly  valuable   acquisition   to 

his  extensive  collection  of  ancient  relics,  consisting  of  the  finest  specimen 
of  a  stone  war  pipe  ever  seen  in  this  section  of  the  country.  It  is  in 
the  shape  of  a  small  stone  ax,  and  is  thoroughly  made.  The  stone  is 
of  a  beautiful  rosewood  color  and  is  highly  polished.  The  groove  around 
the  ax  is  perfectly  formed,  as  is  also  the  bowl  of  the  pipe,  showing  great 

skill  in  workmanship.     This  valuable  relic,   Mr.  informs  us,   was 

obtained  from  Mr.  ,  whose  great-grandfather,   during  the  days  of 

the  Revolution,  secured  it  from  a  noted  Indian  chief,  who  had  no  doubt 
found  it,  as  the  Indians  knew  nothing  about  the  art  of  making  stone 
implements,  and  even  if  they  did  know,  they  did  not  possess  the  industry 
and  perseverance  to  do  the  work,  which  must  have  required  great  skill, 
patience  and  months  of  toil.  This  ax  was  made  hundreds  of  years  before 
the  Indians  ever  set  foot  upon  this  country,  and  was  the  result  of  the 
patient  and  untiring  work  of  that  ancient  race  of  people  who  built  the 
mounds  and  earthworks  and  made  the  flint  arrowheads  and  spears  and 
all  other  ancient  relics  that  are  so  much  wondered  at  and  prized  by 
people   of  the  present  day."  —  Newspaper   clipping. 

TRADITIONS. 

Much  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  total  lack  of  knowledge 
and  absence  of  tradition  on  the  part  of  later  Ohio  Indians  con- 
cerning the  earthworks  of  the  State.    Admitting,  for  the  moment, 


428  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

the  truth  of  this  argument,  so  often  advanced,  it  finds  a  ready  and 
ample  explanation. 

"  Indian  tradition  is  short-lived  and  evanescent.  Except  the  Creeks, 
there  is  scarcely  a  tribe  that  has  trustworthy  tradition  of  their  own 
annals  a  century  old.  The  expedition  of  De  Soto  is  a  striking  instance 
of  the  faint  hold  tradition  had  among  them.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  any- 
thing calculated  to  make  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  impression  on  them 
than  the  sudden  appearance  among  them  of  an  army  of  strange  beings 
of  different  color;  bearded,  wearing  garments  and  armor  of  unheard 
of  color  and  material ;  mounted  on  animals  that  were  beyond  all  exper- 
ience; armed  with  thunder  and  lightning,  striding  across  the  continent 
with  a  thousand  manacled  prisoners  as  slaves,  destroying  their  strongest 
towns  and  laying  waste  their  country,  and  finally  wasting  away  and 
driven  down  the  river  to  the  great  sea,  helpless  fugitives.  Yet  when 
Europeans  next  visited  the  country,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  they  found 
not  a  vestige  of  a  tradition  of  De  Soto. 

"  Besides,  the  Indians  often  changed  their  place  of  residence.  In 
their  continued  warfare,  entire  tribes  were  not  unfrequently  exterminated. 
Jaques  Cartier  found  the  Iroquois  at  Montreal  in  1535.  Champlain  found 
them  between  lakes  Ontario  and  Champlain  in  1612.  After  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Eries  in  1655,  the  tract  now  the  State  of  Ohio  was  uninhabited 
until  the  next  century.  The  nations  known  as  Ohio  Indians  moved  into 
it  after  1700.  The  Shawnees  first  appear  in  history  in  the  region  which 
is  now  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  but  they  had  migrated  there  from 
elsewhere.  The  Creeks  and  Alabamas  arrived  in  what  is  now  Alabama 
and  Georgia  after  the  expedition  of  De  Soto.  Hence,  even  if  they  were 
a  people  who  preserved  traditions,  they  might  well  be  without  tradi- 
tions concerning  the  mounds  found  in  their  hunting  grounds."  — 
Force,  58. 

''  In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  after  the  destruction 
of  the  Eries  by  the  Five  Nations,  in  1656,  what  is  now  the  State  of  Ohio 
was  uninhabited.  The  Miami  Confederacy,  inhabiting  the  southern  shore 
of  Lake  Michigan,  extended  southeasterly  to  the  Wabash.  The  Illinois 
Confederacy  extended  down  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mississippi  to 
within  about  eighty  miles  of  the  Ohio.  Hunting  parties  of  the  Chick- 
asaws  roamed  up  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mississippi  to  about  where 
Memphis  now  stands.  The  Cherokees  occupied  the  slopes  and  valleys 
of  the  mountains  about  the  borders  of  what  is  now  East  Tennessee, 
North  Carolina  and  Georgia.  The  great  basin,  bounded  north  by  Lake 
Erie,  the  Miamis,  and  the  Illinois,  west  by  the  Mississippi,  east  by  the 
Alleghanies,  and  south  by  the  headwaters  of  the  streams  that  flow  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  seems  to  have  been  uninhabited  except  by  bands  of 
Shawnees  and  scarcely  visited  except  by  war  parties  of  the  Five  Nations. 

"  In  the  next  half  century,  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth,  various 
tribes  pressed  into  what  is  now  Ohio,  across  all  its  borders.  Champlain, 
in  1609,  found  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Huron  a  tribe  called  by  the 
Five    Nations,    Quatoghies,    but    to    which    the    French    gave    the    name 


Advent  of  Historic  Tribes  in  Ohio.  429 

Huron.  In  some  of  the  earlier  relations  they  are  called  '  Hurons  ou 
Ouendats.'  Ouendat  appears  to  be  the  name  by  which  they  called  them- 
selves. About  1650  the  Five  Nations  nearly  destroyed  the  Hurons  or 
Wendats,  and  drove  the  remnant  to  seek  shelter  near  the  western 
extremity,  among  the  tribes  inhabiting  the  borders  of  Lake  Superior. 
Afterward,  threatened  with  war  by  the  Sioux,  in  1670,  they  gathered 
under  the  protection  of  the  French,  about  Michilimackinac,  and  grad- 
ually shifted  down  to  Detroit.  In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, under  the  name  of  Wyandots  (the  English  spelling  of  the  name 
which  the  French  spelled  Ouendat),  a  portion  of  them  extended  their 
settlements  into  the  northwestern  part  of  Ohio,  and  became  permanently 
fixed  there. 

"  The  Miamis  pushed  their  borders  into  the  western  portion.  Shaw- 
nees  settled  the  Scioto  valley.  Delawares  moved  to  the  valley  of  the 
Muskingum.  Little  detachments  of  the  Five  Nations,  mostly  Senecas, 
occupied  part  of  the  northern  and  eastern  borders.  The  Senecas  who 
settled  in  the  northern  part  were  called  by  that  name.  Those  who  settled 
in  the  eastern  portion  near  the  Delaware  [Indians]  and  the  Pennsylvania 
border,  were  called  Mingoes.  *  *  *  Parties  of  Cherokees  often  pen- 
etrated north  of  the  Ohio,  between  1700  and  1750,  and  later  a  party  of 
them  settled  among  the  Wyandots,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sandusky. 
*  *  *  The  Fries,  so  called  by  the  Hurons,  were  called  Rique  by  the 
Iroquois,  and  'Nation  du  Chat'  by  the  French.  *  *  *  In  a  list  of 
tribes  living  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Lakes,  the  Fries  are 
mentioned,  and  in  the  [Jesuit]  Relation  of  1641,  they  are  named  as 
neighbors  of  the  Neutral  Nation." 

The  French  called  the  Fries  "the  Cat  nation,  because  there  is  in 
their  country  a  prodigious  number  of  wild  cats,  two  or  three  times  as 
large  as  our  tame  cats,  but  having  a  beautiful  and  precious  fur,  *  *  * 
from  the  skins  of  which  the  natives  make  robes,  bordered  and  orna- 
mented with  the  tails."  [This  probably  refers  to  the  lynx,  though  it  may 
mean  the  raccoon.]  In  one  of  the  Jesuit  Relations  it  is  stated  "This  Cat 
Nation  is  very  populous.  *  *  *  It  is  said  they  have  two  thousand  men, 
good  warriors,  though  without  fire-arms." 

"  In  1654,  war  broke  out  between  the  Fries  and  the  Five  Nations." 

Finally  the  Iroquois  invaded  the  Frie  territory.  The  latter  con- 
structed a  wooden  fort  in  which  they  took  refuge;  but  the  Iroquois 
carried  it  by  storm.  "With  this  the  Fries  disappear.  They  are  afterward 
mentioned  only  as  a  destroyed  people.  Most  of  the  captives  taken  by 
the  Iroquois  were  tortured  and  burned ;  but  some  were  adopted  and 
became  members  of  the   Five  Nations. 

"  On  De  Lisle's  map,  published  in  1720,  appears,  near  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Frie,  the  words,  'Nation  du  Chat,  detruite.'  On  the  same 
map,  villages  marked  'Les  Tongoria'  are  placed  on  the  Ohio,  and  on 
the  Tennessee  rivers.  x\s  Colden  *  *  *  gives  Tongoria  as  the 
French  equivalent  for  Erigek,  used  by  the  Fnglish  and  Five  Nations,  Mr. 
Shea  suggests  *  *  *  that  the  Tongorias  might  be  a  remnant  of  the 
Fries."  —  Force,  Indians,  3,  et  seq. 


430  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

"  The  Shawnees  were  not  found  originally  in  Ohio,  but  migrated 
there  after  1750.       They  were  called   Chaouanons,  by  the   French,   and 
■  Shawanoes,  by  the  English.       The  English  name   Shawano  changed  to 
Shawanee,  and  recently  to   Shawnee.     *    *    * 

"According  to  the  French  accounts,  the  original  seat  of  the  Shawa- 
noes was  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie.  In  a  letter  written  *  *  at 
New  Orleans  *  *  *  it  is  said:  'Besides,  the  Chaouanons  heretofore 
settled  in  Canada,  *  *  *  are  come  to  settle  among  the  Alibamos.'  The 
French  applied  the  name  Canada  to  all  of  the  territory  held  by  them, 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  north  of  the  Ohio."  —  Force,  Indians,  12-13. 

"  The  tribes  occupying  Ohio  in  the  period  subsequent  to  1754  were 
all  intrusive  within  the  period  of  history.  When  first  known,  the  Hurons 
were  settled  on  the  southeast  of  the  northern  portion  of  Lake  Huron. 
The  Tobacco  nation  were  found  in  1616  south  of  Lake  Huron,  and  just 
west  of  the  Hurons.  Their  language  was  almost  identical  with  the 
Huron.  After  their  overthrow  by  the  Iroquois,  these  two  tribes  wan- 
dered over  much  of  the  lake  country,  and  many  of  them  finally  settled 
in  Ohio.  The  Iroquois  proper,  when  first  known  to  the  French  in  1609, 
did  not  extend  as  far  west  as  Lake  Erie.  The  Neutral  Nation  inhabited 
the  banks  of  Niagara  river,  the  east  end  of  Lake  Erie,  and  its  north 
shore.  They  were  called  Kahkwas  by  the  Senecas.  The  Jesuit  Relation 
of  1648  says  that  Lake  Erie  was  formerly  inhabited  along  its  south  coast 
by  the  Cat  nation,  who  had  been  obliged  to  draw  well  inland  to  avoid 
their  enertiies  from  the  west.  They  had  a  quantity  of  fixed  villages, 
for  they  cultivated  the  earth,  and  had  the  same  language  as  the  Hurons. 
Charlevoix  says  that  the  Iroquois  obtained  from  the  country  of  the  Fries 
a  fruit  which  from  its  description  could  be  only  the  pawpaw.  The  plant 
rarely  occurs  along  the  lake  and  does  not  fruit  there. 

"  In  one  instance,  the  Iroquois  (Senecas)  overcame  2,000  men  of  the 
Cats  in  their  own  entrenchments. 

"About  1700,  in  a  war  with  the  Cherokees,  the  Delawares  reached 
the   Ohio,   settled,   and  remained  there  until   1773. 

"  We  find,  then,  that  about  1640  the  Fries  ranged  in  Ohio  from  near 
the  east  end  of  Lake  Erie  to  near  the  west,  and  held  the  country  back 
and  part  of  the  Ohio  river.  That  everywhere  west  were  Algonquins, 
probably  the  Miamis  and  Ottawas  pressing  upon  them.  That  below  them 
on  the  Ohio,  were  the  Shawnees,  and  southeast  of  them  and  their  kindred 
the  Andastes  were  the  Algonquin  nations."  —  Baldwin,  81-90,  condensed. 

Colden  [History  of  the  Five  Nations]  says  the  Shawnees,  or,  as  he 
calls  them,  the  Satanas,  formerly  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  lakes,  and 
that  they  were  the  first  people  against  whom  the  Five  Nations  turned 
their  arms  after  their  defeat  and  expulsion  from  the  region  near  Mon- 
treal by  the  Adirondacks.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  this 
took  part  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century."  —  Carr,  Mounds, 
531,  note. 

"  From  all  authorities,  the  two  tribes  [Fries  and  Neuters]  at  least 
spoke  a  kindred  dialect,  namely,  a  dialect  of  the  Wyandot  branch  of 
the  Iroquois.       It  is  fair  to  infer  that  they  were  closely  affiliated.     The 


Advent  of  Historic  Tribes  in  Ohio.  431 

remnants  of  the  Eries  and  Neuters  united,  but  were  either  completely 
destroyed  or  else  fled  southward.  Then  the  Iroquois  attacked  the  Andastes 
or  Kah-kwas,  and  drove  the  survivors  of  that  tribe  down  the  Alleghany. 
Certainly  one  of  these  tribes,  perhaps  all  of  them  in  a  body,  fled  to  Car- 
olina and  are  now  known  as  the  Catawbas."  —  Schoolcraft,  Eries,  290. 

"  Perrot  says  that  the  Iroquois  had  their  original  home  about  Mon- 
treal and  the  Three  Rivers,  that  they  fled  from  the  Algonquins  to  Lake 
Erie,  where  lived  the  Chaouanans,  who  waged  war  against  them,  and 
drove  them  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario.  That  after  many  years  of 
war  against  the  Chaouanans  and  their  allies,  they  withdrew  to  Carolina, 
where  they  now  are.  The  Iroquois,  after  being  obliged  to  quit  Lake 
Erie,  withdrew  to  Lake  Ontario;  and  that  after  having  chased  the 
Chaouanans  and  their  allies  towards  Carolina,  they  have  ever  since  re- 
mained there  or  in  the  vicinity." 

"  Colden  says  *  *  *  that  the  French  arriving  in  1603,  found 
the  Adirondacks  at  war  with  the  Five  Nations ;  that  formerly,  the  Five 
Nations,  then  a  peaceful  tribe,  living  by  agriculture,  about  the  site  of 
Montreal,  being  oppressed  by  the  Adirondacks,  migrated  to  the  south- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  where  they  at  first  feebly  resisted  their  pur- 
suers. 'But  afterwards  becoming  more  expert  and  more  used  to  war, 
they  not  only  made  a  brave  defense,  but  likewise  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  great  lakes,  and  chased  the  Shawnees  from  thence.'  That 
they  increased  their  numbers  by  adopting  many  of  the  Shawanon 
prisoners."  —  Force,  Indians,  14. 

"America,  when  it  became  known  to  Europeans,  was,  as  it  had 
long  been,  a  scene  of  wide-spread  revolution.  North  and  south,  tribe 
was  given  place  to  tribe,  language  to  language.  *  *  *  j^  Canada 
and  the  northern  section  of  the  United  States,  the  elements  of  change 
were  especially  active.  The  Indian  population,  which,  in  1535,  Cartier 
found  at  Montreal  and  Quebec,  had  disappeared  at  the  opening  of  the 
next  century,  and  another  race  had  succeeded,  in  language  and  customs 
widely  different ;  while,  in  the  region  now  forming  the  State  of  New 
York,  a  power  was  rising  to  ferocious  vitality,  which,  but  for  the  pres- 
ence of  Europeans,  would  probably  have  subjected,  absorbed,  or  exterm- 
inated every  other  Indian  community  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north 
of  the  Ohio."  —  Jesuits,  xix. 

Another  example  of  the  little  importance  to  be  attached  to 
tradition,  or  the  lack  of  it,  is  the  statement  that  at  Attafife  there 
was  a 

"high  pillar,  round  like  a  pin  or  needle ;  it  is  about  forty  feet  in  height, 
and  between  two  and  three  feet  in  diameter  at  the  earth,  gradually 
tapering  upward  to  a  point ;  it  is  in  one  piece  of  pine  wood,  and  arises 
from  the  center  of  a  low,  circular,  artificial  hill."  The  natives  of  the 
town  made  the  same  professions  of  ignorance  as  to  its  origin  and  the 
same  statements  as  to  its  antiquity,  that  they  made  in  regard  to  mounds 
in  the  vicinity. —  Bartrams,  455. 


432  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

While  some  of  the  southern  pine  is  extremely  durable,  it  is 
out  of  the  question  to  suppose  this  pole  would  last  more  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  period  that  had  elapsed  since  De 
Soto's  expedition  when  the  same  tribes  were  occupying  the 
country  that  the  Bartrams  found  there. 

"  The  question  has  often  been  raised  how  long  a  savage  tribe, 
ignorant  of  writing,  is  likely  to  retain  the  memory  of  past  deeds.  From 
a  great  many  examples  in  America  and  elsewhere,  it  is  probable  that 
the  lapse  of  five  generations,  or  say  two  centuries,  completely  obliterates 
all  recollection  of  historic  ocurrences.  *  *  *  The  federation  of  prom- 
inent tribes,  and  perhaps  a  genealogy  may  run  back  farther." — Essays,  22. 

"  The  Klallams  *  *  ^s^  have  no  reliable  knowledge  of  their  own 
history  earlier  than  the  recollections  of  the  oldest  Indian.  In  obtaining 
their  names  for  various  articles  I  have  often  found  that  persons  of 
eighteen  and  even  twenty-five  years  of  age  do  not  know  the  names  for 
stone  arrow-heads,  axes,  chisels,  anchors,  rain-stones  and  the  like,  which 
went  out  of  use  soon  after  the  whites  came.  This  shows  how  quickly 
the  past  is  forgotten  with  them."  —  Eells:  Twana,  609. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  whether  their  traditions  covered  two 
centuries  or  twenty,  it  is  obvious  that  the  historic  Indians  of  Ohio 
could  know  nothing,  simply  from  having  lived  among  them  for 
two  or  three  generations,  of  remains  which  they  found  on  their 
arrival  in  a  deserted  country. 

Among  the  Indians  outside  of  the  State,  however,  there  were 
at  least  two  well-defined  legends  which  appear  to  bear  directly 
upon  the  prehistoric  remains  within  its  boundaries.  First,  is  the 
tradition  of  the  Lenni  Lenape,  or,  as  they  are  better  known,  the 
Delawares.  This  was  collected  and  recorded  by  Heckewelder  as 
follows : — 

"'  The  Lenni  Lenape  (according  to  the  traditions  handed  down  to  them 
by  their  ancestors)  resided  many  hundred  years  ago,  in  a  very  distant 
country  in  the  western  part  of  the  American  continent.  For  some  reason, 
which  I  do  not  find  accounted  for,  they  determined  on  migrating  to  the 
eastward,  and  accordingly  set  out  in  a  body.  After  a  very  long  journey, 
and  many  nights'  encampment  by  the  way  ('Night's  encampment'  is  a 
halt  of  one  year  at  a  place),  they  at  length  arrived  at  the  Namsesi  Sipu 
(The  Mississippi  or  Riz'cr  of  Fish;  Namas  a  Fish;  Sipu  a  River),  where 
they  fell  in  with  the  Mengwe  (The  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations),  who  had 
likewise  emigrated  from  a  distant  country,  and  had  struck  upon  this 
river  somewhat  higher  up.  Their  object  was  the  same  with  that  of 
the  Delawares:  they  were  proceeding  on  to  the  eastward,  until  they  should 
find  a  country  that  pleased  them.  The  spies  which  the  Lenape  had 
sent  forward  for  the  purpose  of  reconnoitering,  had  long  before  their 
arrival  discovered  that  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  was  inhabited 


The  Lenape,  or  Delaware,  Tradition.  433 

by  a  very  powerful  nation,  who  had  many  large  towns  built  on  the 
great  rivers  flowing  through  their  land.  These  people  (as  I  was  told) 
called  themselves  Talligeu  or  Talligewi.  *  *  *  The  Delawares  still 
call  the  Alleghany  Alligewi  Sipu  the  River  of  the  AUegewi.  Many 
wonderful  things  are  told  of  this  famous  people.  They  are  said  to  have 
been  remarkably  tall  and  stout.  It  is  related  that  they  had  built  them- 
selves regular  fortifications  or  entrenchments,  from  whence  they  would 
sally  out,  but  were  generally  repulsed.  I  have  seen  many  of  the  forti- 
fications said  to  have  been  built  by  them,  two  of  which,  in  particular, 
were  remarkable.  One  of  them  was  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Huron, 
which  empties  itself  into  the  Lake  St.  Clair  on  the  north  side  of  that 
lake,  at  the  distance  of  about  20  miles  north  of  Detroit.  The  other 
works,  properly  entrenchments,  being  walls  or  banks  of  earth  regularly 
thrown  up,  with  a  deep  ditch  on  the  outside,  were  on  the  Huron  river, 
east  of  the  Sandusky,  about  six  or  eight  miles  from  Lake  Erie.  Outside 
of  the  gateways  of  each  of  these  two  entrenchments,  which  lay  within 
a  mile  of  each  other,  were  a  number  of  large  flat  mounds,  in  which 
the  Indian  pilot  said,  were  buried  hundreds  of  the  slain  Talligewi, 
whom  I  shall  hereafter  with  Colonel  Gibson  call  Allegewi.  When  the 
Lenape  arrived  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  they  sent  a  message  to 
the  Alligezvi  to  request  permission  to  settle  themselves  in  their  neigh- 
borhood. This  was  refused  them,  but  they  obtained  leave  to  pass  through 
the  country  and  seek  a  settlement  farther  to  the  eastward.  They  accord- 
ingly began  to  cross  the  Namsesi  Sipu,  when  the  Alligewi,  seeing  that  their 
numbers  were  so  very  great,  and  in  fact  they  consisted  of  many  thousands,, 
made  a  furious  attack  on  those  who  had  crossed,  threatening  them  all 
with  destruction,  if  they  dared  to  persist  in  coming  over  to  their  side 
of  the  river.  Fired  at  the  treachery  of  these  people,  and  the  great  loss 
of  men  they  had  sustained,  and  besides,  not  being  prepared  for  a  conflict, 
the  Lenape  consulted  on  what  was  to  be  done.  The  Mengwe,  who 
had  hitherto  been  satisfied  with  being  spectators  from  a  distance,  offered 
to  join  them,  on  condition  that,  after  conquering  the  country,  they  should 
be  entitled  to  share  it  with  them ;  their  proposal  was  accepted.  Having 
thus  united  their  forces,  the  Lenape  and  Mengwe  declared  war  against 
the  Alligewi,  and  great  battles  were  fought  in  which  many  warriors  fell 
on  both  sides.  The  enemy  fortified  their  large  towns  and  erected  forti- 
fications, especially  on  large  rivers  and  near  lakes,  where  they  were 
successively  attacked  and  sometimes  stormed  by  the  allies.  An  engage- 
ment took  place  in  which  hundreds  fell,  who  were  afterwards  buried  in 
holes  or  laid  together  in  heaps  and  covered  over  with  earth.  No  quarter 
was  given,  so  that  the  Alligewi,  at  last  finding  that  their  destruction  was 
inevitable  if  they  persisted  in  their  obstinacy,  abandoned  the  country  tO' 
the  conquerors,  and  fled  down  the  Mississippi  river,  from  whence  they 
never  returned.  The  war  which  was  carried  on  with  this  nation,  lasted! 
many  years,  during  which  the  Lenape  lost  a  great  number  of  their  war- 
riors. In  the  end,  the  conquerors  divided  the  country  between  them- 
selves; the  Mengwe  made  choice  of  the  lands  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great: 

28 


434  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

lakes,  and  on  their  tributary  streams,  and  the  Lenape  took  possession 
of  the  country  to  the  south.  For  a  long  period  of  time,  some  say  many 
hundred  years,  the  two  nations  resided  peaceably  in  this  country; — after 
which  the  Lenape  migrated  to  the  Atlantic  coast."  —  Heckewelder,  47, 
et  seq.,  condensed. 

A  translation  of  Rafinesque,  published  by  Squier,  is  more 
literal  and  goes  more  minutely  into  detail. 

"The  Walum-Olum,  (literally  painted  sticks),  or  painted  and 
engraved  traditions  of  the  Lenni-Lenape,  embraces  one  hundred  and 
eighty-four  compound  mnemonic  symbols,  each  accompanied  by  a  sentence 
or  verse  in  the  original  language,  of  which  a  literal  translation  is  given 
in  English  by  Rafinesque.  This  translation,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  test  it,  is  a  faithful  one,  and  there  is  slight  doubt  that  the  original 
is  what  it  professes  to  be,  a  genuine  Indian  record.  I  submitted  it, 
without  explanation,  to  an  educated  Indian  chief,  George  Copway,  who 
unhesitatingly  pronounced  it  authentic,  in  respect  not  only  to  the  original 
signs  and  accompanying  explanations  in  the  Delaware  dialect,  but  also 
in  the  general  ideas  and  conceptions  which  it  embodies.  He  also  bore 
testimony  to  the  fidelity  of  the  translation. 

"The  details  of  the  emigrations  here  recounted,  particularly  so  far 
as  they  relate  to  the  passage  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  subsequent 
contest  with  the  Tallegwi  or  Allegwi,  and  the  final  expulsion  of  the 
latter,  coincide  generally  with  those  given  by  various  authors  and  well 
known  to  have  existed  among  the  Delawares.  The  traditions,  in  their 
order,  relate  first  to  a  migration  from  the  north  to  the  south,  attended 
by  a  contest  with  a  people  denominated  Snakes,  or  Evil,  who  are  driven 
to  the  eastward.  One  of  the  migrating  family,  the  Lowaniwa,  literally 
northlings,  afterwards  separate  and  go  to  the  snow  land,  whence  they 
subsequently  go  to  the  east,  towards  the  island  of  the  retreating  Snakes. 
They  cross  deep  waters  and  arrive  at  Shinaki,  the  Land  of'  Firs.  Here 
the  Wunkanapi,  or  Westerners,  hesitate,  preferring  to  return. 

"  A  hiatus  follows,  and  the  tradition  resumes,  the  tribes  still  re- 
maining at  Shinaki  or  the  Fir  Land. 

"  They  search  for  the  great  and  fine  island,  the  land  of  the  Snakes, 
where  they  finally  arrive,  and  expel  the  Snakes.  Then  they  multiply 
■and  spread  toward  the  south,  to  the  Akolaki  or  beautiful  land,  which  is 
;also  called  Shore-land,  and  the  Big-fir  land.  Here  they  tarried  long,  and 
for  the  first  time  cultivated  corn  and  built  towns.  In  consequence  of 
a  great  drought,  they  leave  for  the  Shillilaking  or  Buffalo  land.  Here, 
in  consequence  of  disaffection  with  their  chief,  they  divide  and  separate, 
one  party,  the  Wetamowi,  or  the  Wise,  tarrying,  the  others  going  off. 
The  Wetamowi  build  a  town  on  the  Wisawana  or  Yellow  River  (probably 
the  Missouri),  and  for  a  long  time  are  peaceful  and  happy.  War  finally 
breaks  out,  and  a  succession  of  warlike  chiefs  follows,  under  whom 
.conquests  are  made  north,   east,   south  and  west.     In  the  end   Opekasit 


The  Lenape,  or  Delaware,  Tradition.  436 

(literally  east-looking)  is  chief,  who,  tired  with  so  much  warfare,  leads 
his  followers  towards  the  sun-rising.  The  arrive  at  Messussipu,  or 
"Great  River  (the  Mississippi),  where,  being  weary,  they  stop,  and  their 
first  chief  is  Yagawanend  or  the  Hut-maker,  under  whose  chief tancy 
it  is  discovered  that  a  strange  people,  the  Tallegwi,  possess  the  rich  east 
land.  Some  of  the  Wetamowi  are  slain  by  the  Tallegwi,  and  then  a 
cry  of  zi'ar!  zvarH  is  raised,  and  they  go  over  and  attack  the  Tallegwi. 
The  contest  is  continued  during  the  lives  of  several  chiefs,  but  finally 
terminates  in  the  Tallegwi  being  driven  southwards.  The  conquerors 
then  occupy  the  country  on  the  Ohio  below  the  Great  Lakes  —  the 
Shawanipekis.  To  the  north  are  their  friends,  the  Talamatan,  literally 
not-of-themselves,  translated  Hurons.  The  Hurons,  however,  are  not 
always  friends,  and  they  have  occasional  contests  with  them. 

'*  Another  hiatus  follows,  and  the  record  resumes  by  saying  that 
they  were  strong  and  peaceful  at  the  land  of  the  Tallegwi.  They  built 
towns  and  planted  corn.  A  long  succession  of  chiefs  followed,  when 
war  again  broke  out,  and  finally  a  portion  under  Linkewinnek  or  the 
Sharp-looking,  went  eastward  beyond  the  Talega-chukung  or  Allegheny 
Mountains.  Here  they  spread  widely,  warring  against  the  Mengwi  or 
Spring-people,  the  Pungelika,  Lynx  or  Eries,  and  the  Mohegans,  or 
Wolves.  The  various  tribes  into  which  they  became  divided,  the  chiefs 
of  each  in  their  order,  with  the  territories  which  they  occupied,  are  then 
named  —  bringing  the  record  down  until  the  ^rival  of  the  Europeans. 
This  latter  portion  we  are  able  to  verify  in  great  part  from  authentic 
history. 

"  I  have  alluded  to  the  general  identity  of  the  mythological  traditions 
here  re(?orded,  with  those  which  are  known  to  have  been,  and  which 
are  still  current  among  the  nations  of  the  Algonquin  stock.  The  same 
may  be  observed  of  the  traditions  which  are  of  a  historical  character, 
and  particularly  that  which  relates  to  the  contest  with  the  people  denom- 
inated the  Tallegwi.  The  name  of  this  people  is  still  perpetuated  in  the 
word  Alleghany,  the  original  significance  of  which  is  more  apparent  when 
it  is  written  in  an  unabbreviated  form,  Tallegwi-hanna,  literally  river 
of  the  Tallegwi.  It  was  applied  to  the  Ohio,  and  is  still  retained  as  the 
designation  of  its  northern  or  principal  tributary. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  difference  between  the  traditions, 
as  given  by  Heckewelder,  and  the  Walum-Olum  in  respect  to  the  name  of 
the  confederates  against  the  Tallegwi.  In  the  latter  the  allies  are  called 
Talamatan  literally  not-of-themselves,  and  which,  in  one  or  two  cases, 
is  translated  Hurons  with  what  correctness  I  am  not  prepared  to  say. 
Heckewelder  calls  them  Mcngi,  Iroquois.  This  must  be  a  mistake,  as 
the  Mengwi  are  subsequently  and  very  clearly  alluded  to  in  the  Walum- 
Olum  as  distinct  from  the  Talamatan.  In  Heckewelder  we  find  the 
Hurons  sometimes  called  Delamattenos,  which  is  probably  but  another 
mode    of    writing    Talamatan."  —  Squier,    Algonquins,    14-41,    condensed. 


436  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

Dr.  Brinton  thus  interprets  the  legend: — 

"  Were  I  to  reconstruct  their  ancient  history  from  the  Walum  Olum- 
as  I  understand  it,  the  result  would  read  as  follows : — 

"  At  some  remote  period  their  ancestors  dwelt  far  to  the  north- 
east, on  tide-water,  probably  at  Labrador.  They  journeyed  south  and 
west,  till  they  reached  a  broad  water,  full  of  islands  and  abounding  in 
fish,  perhaps  the  St.  Lawrence  about  the  Thousand  Isles.  They  crossed 
and  dwelt  for  some  generations  in  the  pine  and  hemlock  regions  of 
New  York,  fighting  more  or  less  with  the  Snake  people,  and  the  Talega, 
agricultural  nations,  living  in  stationary  villages  to  the  southwest  of 
them,  in  the  area  of  Ohio  and  Indiana.  They  drove  out  the  former, 
but  the  latter  remained  on  the  upper  Ohio  and  its  branches.  The  Lenape, 
now  settled  on  the  streams  in  Indiana,  wished  to  remove  to  the  East  to 
join  the  Mohegans  and  other  of  their  kin  who  had  moved  there  directly 
from  New  York.  They,  therefore,  united  with  the  Hurons  (Talematans) 
to  drive  out  the  Talega  (Tsalaki,  Cherokees)  from  the  upper  Ohio.  This 
they  only  succeeded  in  accomplishing  finally  in  the  historic  period.  But 
they  did  clear  the  road  and  reached  the  Delaware  valley,  though  neither 
forgetting  nor  giving  up  their  claims  to  their  western  territory." 

Heckewelder's  account,  or  translation,  gives  a  pronunciation  which 
"  reduces  our  quest  to  that  of  a  nation  who  called  themselves  by  a 
name,  which,  to  Lenape  ears,  would  sound  like  Tallike.  Such  a  nation 
presents  itself  at  once  in'  the  Cherokees,  who  call  themselves  Tsa'laki. 
Moreover  they  fill  the  requirements  in  other  particulars.  Their  ancient 
traditions  assign  them  a  residence  precisely  where  the  Delaware  legends 
locate  the  Tallike,  to-wit,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio.  Fragments 
of  them  continued  there  until  within  the  historic  period ;  and  ttie  per- 
sistent hostility  between  them  and  the  Delawares  points  to  some  ancient 
and  important  contest. 

"  Name,  location  and  legends,  therefore,  combine  to  identify  the 
Cherokees  or  Tsalika  with  the  Tallike;  and  this  is  as  much  evidence  as 
we  can  expect  to  produce  in  such  researches. 

"  The  question  remains,  whether  the  Tallike  were  the  '  Mound- 
builders.'  It  is  not  so  stated  in  the  Walum-Olum.  The  inference  rather 
is  that  the  *  Snake  people  '  dwelt  in  the  river  valleys  north  of  the  Ohio 
River  in  the  area  of  Western  Ohio  and  Indiana,  where  the  most  important 
earthworks  are  found  —  and  singularly  enough  none  more  remarkable 
than  the  [Serpent  Mound.]  According  to  the  Red  Score,  the  Snake 
people  were  conquered  by  the  Algonkins  long  before  the  contest  with  the 
Tallike  began.  These  latter  lay  between  the  position  then  occupied  by  the 
Lenape  and  the  eastern  territory  where  they  were  found  by  the  whites. 
In  other  words,  the  Tallike  were  on  the  upper  Ohio  and  its  tributaries, 
and  they  had  to  be  driven  south  before  the  path  across  the  mountains 
was  open."  —  Brinton,  Lenape,   165  and  230-1. 

Schoolcraft  ridicules  the  Lenape  tradition ;  says  a  request 
for  permission  to  pass  through  the  country  is  entirely  foreign  to 


Cusick's   Tradition.  437 

the  Indian  manner  of  doing  things;  and  that  the  whole  tradi- 
tion is  simply  a  local  rendering  of  the  20th  chapter  of  Numbers, 
where  the  Jewish  leader  demands  a  passport  through  the  land  of 
Edom. — Schoolcraft,  Iroquois,  315. 

The  second  tradition  is  one  reduced  to  writing  by  Cusick, 
an  Iroquois  chief,  and  printed  by  Beauchamp. 

"  About  tnis  time  the  northern  nations  formed  a  confederacy  and 
seated  a  great  council  fire  on  river  St.  Lawrence;  the  northern  nations 
possessed  the  bank  of  the  great  lakes;  the  countries  in  the  north  were 
plenty  of  beaver,  but  the  hunters  were  often  opposed  by  the  big  snakes. 
The  people  live  on  the  south  side  of  the  Big  Lakes  make  bread  of 
roots  and  obtain  a  kind  of  potatoes  and  beans  found  on  the  rich  soil. 

"  Perhaps  about  two  thousand  two  hundred  years  before  Columbus 
discovered  the  America  and  northern  nations  appointed  a  prince,  and  im- 
mediately repaired  to  the  south  and  visited  the  great  Emperor  who  resided 
.at  the  Golden  City,  a  capital  of  the  vast  empire.  After  a  time  the 
Emperor  built  many  forts  throughout  his  dominions  and  almost  penetrated 
the  Lake  Erie;  this  produced  an  excitement,  the  people  of  the  north  felt 
that  they  would  soon  be  deprived  of  the  country  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Great  Lakes  they  determined  to  defend  their  country  against  any 
infringement  of  foreign  people;  long  bloody  wars  ensued  which  perhaps 
lasted  about  one  hundred  years ;  the  people  of  the  north  were  too  skillful 
in  the  use  of  bows  and  arrows  and  could  endure  hardships  which  proved 
fatal  to  a  foreign  people;  at  last  the  northern  nations  gained  the  con- 
quest and  all  the  towns  and  forts  were  totally  destroyed  and  left  them  in 
;a  heap  of  ruins."  —  Cusick,   10. 

"  Some  have  thought  the  Emperor  of  the  Golden  City  a  Mexican 
-monarch,  and  that  the  Mound-builders  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  valleys 
were  his  subjects."  —  Beauchamp,  10. 

Hale,  probably  the  most  competent  authority  on  languages 
of  eastern  Indians,  expresses  himself  as  follows  on  these  two 
traditions : — 

In  regard  to  Cusick's  tradition.  "  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason 
for  supposing  that  this  narrative  is  a  fabrication.  Cusick's  work  bears 
throughout  the  stamp  of  perfect  sincerity.  There  is  nothing  in  it  drawn 
from  books,  or,  as  far  as  can  be  discovered,  from  any  other  source  than 
native  tradition.  Of  the  Delaware  tradition,  the  purely  historical  part 
'has,  like  Cusick's  narrative,  an  authentic  air.  The  country  from  which 
the  Lenape  migrated  was  Shinaki,  '  the  land  of  fir-trees,'  not  in  the 
■west,  but  in  the  far  north  —  evidently  the  woody  region  north  of  Lake 
Superior.  The  people  who  joined  them  in  the  war  against  the  Alleghewi 
(or  Tallegwi,  as  they  are  called  in  this  record),  were  the  Talamatan, 
no  doubt  the  Huron-Iroquois  people,  as  they  existed  before  their  separa- 
tion. That  this  river  [the  'Messusipu']  was  not  our  Mississippi,  is  evident 
from   the   fact   that   the   works   of   the   Mound-builders    extended    far   to 


438  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  westward  of  the  latter  river,  and  would  have  been  encountered  by 
the  invading  nations,  if  they  had  approached  it  from  the  west,  long; 
before  they  arrived  at  its  banks.  The  'Great  River'  was  apparently  the 
upper  St.  Lawrence,  and  most  probably  that  portion  of  it  which  flows  from 
Lake  Huron  to  Lake  Erie,  and  which  is  commonly  known  as  the  Detroit 
River.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  Alleghewi  or  Tallegwi,, 
who  have  given  their  name  to  the  Alleghany  River  and  Mountains,, 
were  the  Mound-builders.  The  destiny  which  ultimately  befell  the  Mound- 
builders  can  be  inferred  from  what  was  known  of  the  fate  of  the  Hurons; 
themselves  in  their  final  war  with  the  Iroquois.  The  greater  portion  of 
the  Huron  people  were  exterminated,  and  their  towns  reduced  to  ashes. 
Of  the  survivors  many  were  received  and  adopted  among  the  con- 
querers.  A  few  fled  to  the  east  and  sought  protection  from  the  French, 
while  a  larger  remnant  retired  to  the  northwest,  and  took  shelter  among 
the  friendly  Ojibwas.  The  fate  of  the  Tallegwi  was  doubtless  similar 
to  that  which  overtook  the  descendants  of  their  Huron  conquerers.  So' 
long  as  the  conflict  continued  it  was  a  war  of  extermination.  All  the 
conquered  were  massacred,  and  all  that  was  perishable  in  their  towns 
was  destroyed.  When  they  finally  yielded,  many  of  the  captives  would 
be  spared  to  recruit  the  thinned  ranks  of  their  conquerers.  Such  adop- 
tion of  defeated  enemies  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  cardinal  princi- 
pals of  the  Huron-Iroquois  well-devised  political  system.  It  is  by  no- 
means  unlikely  that  a  portion  of  the  Mound  Builders  may,  during  the 
conflict,  have  separated  from  the  rest,  and  deliberately  united  their  des- 
tiny with  those  of  the  conquering  race.  Either  in  such  an  alliance  or 
in  the  adoption  of  captive  enemies,  we  may  discern  the  origin  of  the 
great  Cherokee  nation,  a  people  speaking  a  mixed  language  which  shows 
evident  traces  of  its  mixed  origin, — in  grammar  mainly  Huron-Iroquois, 
and  in  vocabulary  largely  recruited  from  some  foreign  source.  Another 
portion  of  the  defeated  race,  fleeing  southward,  would  come  directly  into 
the  country  of  the  Chahta,  or  Choctaws.  With  these  the  northern  con- 
querers would  have  no  quarrel  and  the  remnant  of  the  Alleghewi  would 
be  allowed  to  remain  in  peace.  Every  known  fact  favors  the  view  that 
during  a  period  which  may  be  estimated  at  between  one  and  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  the  Ohio  valley  was  occupied  by  an  industrious  population 
of  some  Indian  stock,  which  had  attained  a  grade  of  civilization  similar 
to  that  now  held  by  the  village  Indians  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona; 
that  this  population  was  assailed  from  the  north  by  less  civilized  and 
more  warlike  tribes  of  Algonkins  and  Hurons,  acting  in  a  temporary 
league,  similar  to  those  alliances  which  Pontiac  and  Tecumseh  afterwards 
rallied  against  the  white  colonists ;  that  after  a  long  and  wasting  war 
the  assailants  were  victorious ;  the  conquered  people  were  in  a  great 
part  exterminated;  the  survivors  were  either  incorporated  with  the 
conquering  tribes  or  fled  southward  and  found  refuge  among  the  nations 
which  possessed  the  region  lying  between  the  Ohio  valley  and  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico ;  and  that  this  mixture  of  races  has  largely  modified  the; 
language,  character  and  usages  of  the  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  nations." 


Possible  Truth  in  the  Traditions.  439 

It  may  be  considered  as  beyond  dispute  that  the  Cherokees  are 
a  branch  or  off-shoot  of  the  Huron-Iroquois  family.  Their  language 
proves  it.  "  The  striking  fact  has  become  evident  that  the  course  of  the 
migration  of  the  Huron-Cherokee  family  has  been  from  eastern  Canada, 
on  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence,  to  the  mountains  of  northern  Alabama."  — 
Hale,  condensed. 

It  is  rather  hazardous  to  venture  a  definite  opinion  regard- 
ing the  region  where  the  events  alluded  to  in  these  two  legends 
may  have  occurred.  We  can  at  once,  however,  discard  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Missouri  rivers  from  the  problem.  The  most  that 
can  be  made  of  the  words  resembling  the  former  name  is  that 
they  denote  a  river  abounding  in  fish.  The  term  "yellow"  would 
naturally  be  applied  by  people  accustomed  only  to  clear  waters 
flowing  through  rocky  channels  or  carrying  but  little  silt,  to 
any  stream  which  remains  muddy  from  one  rain  to  the  next. 

Ileckewelder's  identification  of  Detroit  as  the  crossing  place 
may  not  be  incorrect,  but  it  is  clearly  not  supported  by  the  pres- 
ence of  remains  that  can  be  attributed  to  the  Mound  Builders  of 
Southern  Ohio.  In  fact,  no  evidences  of  their  occupation  are  to 
be  found  near  the  rivers  connecting  the  Great  Lakes ;  and  the 
country  about  the  western  end  of  Lake  Erie  is  especially  lacking 
in  remains  of  the  Mound  Builders  or  of  any  prehistoric  race 
closely  resembling  them.  It  is  true  that  various  references  may 
be  found  to  ancient  works  in  this  vicinity;  but  the  enclosures 
remaining  all  belong  to  the  same  class  with  those  of  New  York 
and  northern  Ohio;  and  the  latter,  as  we  have  learned,  are 
undoubtedly  of  Iroquois  construction.  The  ''mounds"  are  usu- 
ally so  like  ordinary  beach  ridges  or  wind  dunes,  that,  as  one 
explorer  put  it,  ''the  only  way  to  tell  which  is  natural  and  which 
artificial,  is  to  dig  into  them.  If  we  find  human  remains,  we 
know  it  is  a  mound ;  if  not,  we  know  it  is  a  dune."  It  seems 
to  be  forgotten  these  dunes  were  sought  by  Indians  as  sites  for 
residence  and  burial  purposes,  and  that  their  shape  is  contin- 
ually changing.  The  wind  piles  sand  on  them  at  one  time,  and 
carries  it  away  at  another.  Articles  left  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  may  thus  be  covered  to  a  depth  of  several  feet;  while 
others,  once  deeply  buried,  may  be  brought  to  light.  The  meth- 
ods of  interment  are  usually  in  close  accord  with  those  observed 
in  burial  places  known  to  belong  to  the  Hurons. 


440  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"There  are  (or  have  been,  for  little  remains)  several  tumuli  upon 
and  near  the  bank  of  the  Detroit  River,  from  two  to  four  miles  below 
the  city.  All  are  burial  mounds.  They  occupy  sandy  elevations,  fifteen 
to  twenty  feet  above  the  water,  are  conical  in  shape,  five  to  twenty-five 
feet  in  height,  and  thirty  to  fifty  feet  broad.  All  contain  numerous  skele- 
tons, both  original  and  intrusive.  The  former  are  found  on  or  near  the 
original  surface,  and  are  mostly  in  a  sitting  posture,  and  the  faces  toward 
the  east,  and  sometimes  a  dozen  or  more  are  found  arranged  around  the 
center  in  a  circle.  In  one  case,  each  held  in  his  arms  a  pot,  of  unusual 
size,  having  a  capacity  of  about  two  gallons.  In  other  cases,  pots  are 
found  near  the  heads.  With  these  skeletons  are  the  usual  stone  imple- 
ments. One,  and  by  far  the  largest  of  the  mounds  in  the  vicinity  of 
Detroit,  seems  somewhat  exceptional  in  its  character.  It  is  situated  at 
the  junction  of  the  River  Rouge  with  the  Detroit,  and  was  originally 
probably  not  less  than  four  hundred  feet  long  by  two  hundred  broad 
and  thirty  or  forty  high.  It  is  built  of  the  light  sand  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  contained  many  hundreds,  if  not  thousands  of  skeletons,  in 
every  stage  of  decay  and  burial.  It  had  two  or  more  pits  filled  with 
great  numbers  of  bones,  promiscuously  disposed,  and  apparently  corre- 
sponding with  those  used  by  the  Hurons,  and  some  other  tribes  at  their 
'Festival  of  the  Dead.'  It  is  hardly  possible  to  dig  into  the  mound  at  any 
point,  and  to  any  depth  from  two  to  ten  feet,  or  even  more,  without 
disinterring  human  bones.  Evidences  of  cremation  abound  in  some  parts 
of  the  mound,  and  at  various  depths.  The  modes  of  interment  are  with- 
out uniform  system."  —  Hubbard,  Relics,  condensed. 

There  is  such  discrepancy  in  the  measurements  of  the 
"Great  Mound,"  that  one  is  in  doubt  whether  to  attribute 
them  to  guess-work,  or  to  suppose  the  ''light  sand"  composing 
it  varied  in  volume  at  different  times.  Hubbard's  figures  are 
just  given;   Gillman  tells  us  that 

"  With  a  height  of  20  feet,  it  must  originally  have  measured  about 
300  feet  in  length  by  200  feet  in  width."  —  Gillman,  M.  B.,  305. 

Peet  multiplies  this  several  fold ;   for  he  says 

"  The  Detroit  mound  was  originally  700  or  800  feet  long,  400  feet 
wide,  40  feet  high."  —  Peet,  Amer.  Antiq.,  July,  1888,  38. 

Gillman  made  some  explorations  which  he  thus  reports. 

"At  what  was  presumed  to  be  its  original  center,  in  the  River  Rouge 
mound  at  Detroit,  at  the  depth  of  three  feet  human  bones  were  exhumed. 
At  four  feet  deep  occurred  abundant  evidence  of  cremation.  Then  four 
feet  of  nothing  but  sand.  Eight  feet  from  the  surface  were  white  lime- 
like masses,  each  of  a  few  inches  in  circumference,  which  subsequent 
examination  proved  to  be  human  bones.  These,  in  general  ball-like 
masses  continued  to  a  depth  of  ten  and  one-half  feet,  where  operations 
were  suspended."  —  Gillman,  Lakes,  327,  condensed. 


The  Great  Mound  at  Detroit.  441 

His  asertion  that  "  ball-like  masses  "  "a  few  inches  in  cir- 
cumference "  were  ''  human  bones,"  is  very  improbable.  We 
can  not  imagine  in  what  manner  they  could  be  buried  to  assume 
this  form  or  reduced  to  this  limit.  If  the  mound  is  artificial, 
even  in  part,  the  method  of  burial  reported  —  granting  the  sup- 
position of  burials  —  shows  its  erection  to  have  extended  over 
a  long  period ;  and  while  mounds  were  thus  built  up  in  Virginia 
by  tribes  allied  to  the  Iroquois,  we  find  nothing  of  this  particular 
kind  of  continuous  burial  in  southern  Ohio. 

Gillman  also   reports   excavations   farther   north. 

Numerous  mounds  extend  "for  about  a  mile  and  a  half,  along  the 
west  shore  of  the  [St.  Clair]  river  and  of  Lake  Huron."  They  "were 
largely  used  for  burial  purposes."  In  one,  "a  wide  area  at  one  end  [was] 
covered  with  a  solid  crust  of  black  ashes,  from  eighteen  inches  to  two 
feet  thick,  containing  the  bones  of  various  animals  used  for  food,  broken 
pottery,  and  stone  implements.  The  relics  from  these  mounds  [included] 
an  extraordinarily  large  number  of  broken  stone  hammers  of  the  rudest 
kind."  In  one  "several  interments  had  been  made"  and  some  relics 
were  found.—  Gillman,  M.  B.,  372. 

It  is  clearly  evident  that  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  Mr. 
Gillman  was  working  on  the  site  of  an  old  Indian  camping  place, 
on  one  of  the  natural  sand-dunes  so  abundant  in  that  region. 
His  ''hammers"  were  the  stones  which  had  been  used  in  boiling 
food.  Interments  immediately  around,  or  even  within,  the  huts 
are  not  uncommon. 


On  the  other  hand,  if  it  be  assumed  that  the  AUegwi 
WTre  the  Mound  Builders ;  that  they  met  the  invaders  at  either 
end  of  Lake  Erie ;  that  they  were  driven  from  the  borders 
back  to  the  interior;  and  that,  consequently,  the  last  struggle 
reached  its  maximum  in  southern  Ohio; — then  the  progressive 
development  of  defensive  works  will  be  accounted  for.  First 
to  be  constructed  for  such  purposes,  when  the  great  squares 
and  circles  and  the  minor  embankments  in  connection  with  them 
became  untenable,  would  be  the  hill-top  enclosures  in  the  same 
localities.  When  these  no  longer  sufBced,  the  original  inhabi- 
tants, hard  pressed  on  every  side,  would  be  driven  to  the  con- 
struction of  strongholds  in  rugged,  broken  country,  as  exemplified 
in  structures  like  Fort  Hill  and  the  Glenford  Fort.  This  is  on 
the   customary  hypothesis  that  all   such   works  are   due  to  the 


442  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

same  people  who  made  the  valley  enclosures  If  the  aggressors^ 
followed  closely  on  the  rear  of  the  defeated  Tallegwi,  and  them- 
selves constructed  the  irregular  enclosures  and  hill-top  forts, 
either  the  same  or  the  reverse  order  might  be  taken.  There 
might  be  first  a  temporary  fortification,  like  the  smaller  hill-top 
enclosures,  where  they  could  find  shelter  until  an  opportunity  for 
retreat;  and  afterwards  a  permanent  defensive  work  like  Fort 
Hill,  where  they  could  be  safe  as  long  as  they  chose  to  remain. 
Or  the  stronger  forts  could  be  occupied  first,  and  the  others  con- 
structed when  the  waning  strength  of  the  Tallegwi  emboldened 
their  foes  to  close  in  on  them. 

In  regard  to  Cusick's  legend.  Since  the  day  of  Prescott's 
thrilling  but  delusive  romance,  the  city  of  Montezuma  is  popu- 
larly considered  as  possessing  a  monopoly  of  glitter  and  brilliancy. 
Perhaps  the  only  reason  for  supposing  the  ''Golden  City"  must 
mean  Mexico  is  the  idea  that  gold  alone  can  have  a  luster  that 
makes  it  attractive;  that  savages  have  the  same  scale  of  value 
for  metals  that  is  in  vogue  among  ourselves ;  and,  finally,  that  no 
evidence  exists  of  the  use  of  this  metal  by  the  aborigines  north 
of  Mexico.  But  among  the  Mound  Builders  copper  seems  to  have 
held  the  rank  accorded  to  gold  in  modern  days;  when  well  pol- 
ished it  has  a  brightness  and  beauty  surpassing  that  of  any  other 
substance  they  could  procure.  If  for  "Golden  City"  we  were 
at  liberty  to  substitute  "City  of  Shining  Metal,"  we  would  have 
good  warrant  for  supposing  copper  was  meant  instead  of  gold; 
because  the  ancient  Iroquois  were  familiar  with  copper  but  knew 
nothing  of  gold  until  they  learned  its  name  and  value  from  the 
whites.  If,  then,  there  be  any  merit  of  truth  in  Cusick's  tradi- 
tion, there  is  some  inherent  probability  that  the  "Golden  City" 
was  located  at  one  of  the  enclosures  in  the  Scioto  valley  where 
copper  is  comparatively  plentiful ;  possibly  at  the  Hopewell  group, 
for  here  not  only  copper  but  all  other  precious  material  was  most 
abundant.  It  is  a  rather  violent  assumption  that  an  Iroquois 
"Prince"  should  make  the  journey  to  Mexico  to  see  its  "Em- 
peror," even  if  he  had  ever  heard  of  such  a  ruler ;  that  this  "Em- 
peror" should  declare  war  against  a  tribe  hundreds  of  miles 
away  when  he  had  nothing  to  gain  by  it ;  send  a  colony  of  "sub- 
jects" on  a  career  of  conquest ;  have  them  build  forts  after  a  man- 
ner entirely  unknown  in  the  home  country;  and  leave  them  to 
their  fate. 


Other  Indian  Tradition  concerning  Mounds.  44S 

"Emperor"  and  'Trince,"  by  both  title  and  office,  were  as 
unfamiliar  to  Iroquois,  until  they  learned  of  them  from 
whites,  as  **gold"  or  "city;"  and  the  same  reasons  which  permit 
us  to  substitute  chief  or  sachem  for  such  fanciful  titles,  give 
us  a  right  to  replace  the  term  "Golden  City"  by  "town  where 
much  copper  is." 

Besides  these  two  traditions,  which  must  refer  to  some  an- 
cient tribe  of  Ohio,  if  not  to  that  known  as  the  Mound  Builders, 
Carr  shows  that  the  origin  or  cause  of  mounds  and  enclosures 
was  not  unknown  to  various  other  tribes.  The  Cherokees, 
Senecas,  Kaskaskias,  Piankeshaws,  Muskogees,  and  others  say 
their  forefathers  constructed  such. — Carr,  Mounds,  563,  et  seq. 

"  De  Soto,  in  1540,  could  get  no  tradition  concerning  them  [mounds] 
beyond  the  assurance  that  the  peoples  he  encountered  had  built  them 
or  some  of  them."  —  Winsor  :    History,  I,  397. 

"  The  Iroquois  believed  that  the  Ohio  mounds  were  the  memorial 
of  a  war  which  in  ancient  times  they  waged  with  the  Cherokees."  — 
Essays,  69;  from  Schoolcraft. 

"  John  Norton,  the  intelligent  Mohawk  chief  [said]  that  there  was 
a  tradition  in  his  tribe  that  [mounds  and  enclosures]  were  constructed  by 
a  people  who  in  ancient  times  occupied  a  great  extent  of  the  country,, 
but  who  had  been  extirpated;  that  there  had  been  long  and  bloody  wars 
between  this  people  and  the  Five  Nations,  in  which  the  latter  had  been 
finally  victorious.  He  added  that  one  of  the  last  fortifications  which 
was  taken  had  been  obstinately  defended;  that  the  warriors  of  the  other 
four  nations  of  the  confederacy  had  assaulted  it  without  waiting  for 
the  Mohawks,  and  had  been  repulsed  with  great  loss,  but  that  the  latter 
coming  to  their  assistance  the  attack  was  renewed,  the  place  taken,  and  all 
who  were  in  it  destroyed."  —  Stone,  II,  48(3,  note. 

Norton's  statement  refers  to  the  war  with  the  Eries ;  at 
least  the  last  battle  between  these  two  nations  was  fought  much 
as  he  describes  it. 

"  The  Wyandots  have  always  assumed  to  have  been  originally  at 
the  head  of  the  Iroquois  group  of  tribes.  *  *  *  j^  mentioning  the 
name  of  this  tribe  to  Mr.  J.  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  he  said 
that  when  at  college  at  New  Haven  in  1802,  a  Mr.  Williams,  a  respect- 
able and  intelligent  man,  a  half  Wyandot,  and  a  person  interested  in 
the  land  claims  of  Connecticut  in  Ohio,  informed  him  that  the  old 
forts  in  the  Ohio  valley  were  erected  some  150  or  200  years  before,  in 
the  course  of  a  long  war  which  was  carried  on  between  the  Wyandots 
(this,  I  think,  to  tally  with  other  traditions,  should  be  Iroquois)  and  the 
Cherokees.  In  this  war  the  northern  confederates  finally  prevailed."  — 
Schoolcraft,  Iroquois,  162. 


444  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


The  Cherokees  are  so  frequently  mentioned  in  discussing  the 
Mound  Builders,  as  to  require  further  notice. 

In  1650  the  Cherokees  had  a  tradition  which  claimed  "they  came  from 
the  west  and  exterminated  the  former  inhabitants ;"  and  then  says  they 
<:ame  from  the  upper  parts  of  the  Ohio,  where  they  erected  the  mounds 
on  Grave  Creek,  and  that  they  removed  hither  [i.  e.,  to  East  Tennessee] 
from  the  country  where  Monticello  is  situated.  They  are  not  noticed 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  his  table  of  original  tribes  which  inhabited  any  part 
of  Virginia  at  or  subsequent  to  the  year  1606,  and  from  then  up  to  1669. 
They  say  themselves  that  their  nation  did  not  erect  the  mounds,  nor 
paint  the  figures  of  the  sun  and  moon  upon  the  rocks  where  they  are 
now  seen."  "The  mounds  exhibited  the  same  appearance  at  the  arrival 
of  the  Cherokees  as  they  now  do." 

"  They  have  a  fabulous  tradition  respecting  the  mounds  which  proves 
that  they  are  beyond  the  events  of  their  history.  The  mounds,  they  say, 
were  caused  by  the  quaking  of  the  earth,  and  a  great  noise  with  it."  — 
Haywood,  225,  234,  and  280. 

"  The  Cherokees  themselves  are  as  ignorant  as  we  are,  by  what 
people  or  for  what  purpose  these  artificial  hills  were  raised ;  *  *  * 
they  have  a  tradition  common  with  other  nations  of  Indians,  that  they 
found  them  in  much  the  same  condition  as  they  now  appear,  when  their 
forefathers  arrived  from  the  west  and  possessed  themselves  of  the  coun- 
try, after  vanquishing  the  nations  of  red  men  who  then  inhabited  it,  who 
themselves  found  these  mounts  when  they  took  possession  of  the  coun- 
try, the  former  possessors  delivering  the  same  story  concerning  them." 
— ■  Bartrams,  365. 

"From  the  verbal  traditions  of  Mr.  Stand  Watie  [a  Cherokee  chief], 
the  Cherokees  anciently  lived  at  the  Otter  Peaks  in  Virginia,*  *  * 
and  they  were  in  the  habit  of  crossing  the  Ohio  with  their  war  parties." 
—  Schoolcraft,   Iroquois,  163. 

The  Mohican  or  Stockbridge  tribe  had  a  tradition  that  "  many  thou- 
sand moons  ago  "  the  Cherokees,  Nanticokes,  and  some  other  tribe  whose 
name  they  had  forgotten,  came  from  the  south  and  attacked  the  Dela- 
wares.  The  latter  were  overcome,  at  first,  but  the  Mohicans  came  to 
their  relief,  and  the  invaders  were  driven  back.  The  Nanticokes  lived 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  and  it  is  improbable  that  the  Chero- 
kees <:ould  have  been  their  neighbors  at  any  time,  even  though  their 
traditions  claim  the  Powhatans  as  being  a  branch  of  their  tribe.  Cer- 
tainly they  could  not  have  been  in  Virginia  as  late  as  1623,  for  De  Soto 
found  them  located  in  Georgia. —  Royce,  136  and  137. 

"  Swimmer,  a  Cherokee  shaman  in  western  North  Carolina,  told 
me  that  formerly  the  Cherokees  constructed  mounds  in  the  following 
manner :  A  fire  was  first  kindled  on  the  level  surface.  Around  the  fire 
was  placed  a  circle  of  stones,  outside  of  which  were  deposited  the  bodies 
■of  seven  prominent  men.     A  hollow  cedar  log  to  serve  as  a  chimney  or 


Cherokee  Traditions  of  Mounds.  445 

air  hole  was  then  fixed  perpendicularly  above  the  fire,  and  the  earth  was 
built  up  around  this  so  as  to  form  a  mound.  Upon  this  mound  the  town 
house  was  built,  so  that  the  mouth  of  the  fire  pit  was  in  the  middle  of 
the  town  house  floor.  The  fire  was  never  allowed  to  go  out,  but  was 
always  smouldering  at  the  bottom  of  the  hole. 

"  Some  time  later,  while  talking  with  an  intelligent  woman  in  re- 
gard to  local  points  of  interest,  she  mentioned  the  large  mound  near 
Franklin,  in  Macon  county,  and  remarked  '  There's  a  fire  at  the  bottom 
of  that  mound.'  Without  giving  her  any  idea  what  Swimmer  had  said, 
I  inquired  of  her  how  the  fire  had  got  there,  when  she  told  substan- 
tially the  same  story.  I  found  on  investigation  that  the  belief  was  gen- 
eral that  the  fires  still  existed.  On  mentioning  this  tradition  to  Cyrus 
Thomas,  he  stated  that  in  many  of  the  mounds  —  especially  in  some 
which  he  believed  to  be  of  Cherokee  origin  —  there  was  found  what 
seemed  to  be  the  remains  of  a  perpendicular  shaft  or  chimney,  gen- 
erally about  a  foot  in  diameter,  coming  up  almost  or  quite  to  the  top 
of  the  mound  and  running  down  into  it  to  the  original  natural  level  of 
the  ground,  and  sometimes  a  short  distance  below  it.  This  shaft  was 
always  filled  with  ashes  and  charred  remains  of  wood.  No  reasonable 
suggestion  had  hitherto  been  offered  as  to  the  purpose  of  these  open- 
ings, but  the  Cherokee  tradition  explained  the  whole  thing.  The  roof  of 
the  Cherokee  town  house  was  covered  with  about  a  foot  of  earth ;  a 
new  town  house  was  usually  built  upon  the  site  of  the  old,  and  as 
destruction  by  fire  must  have  been  a  common  accident,  each  successive 
burning  causing  a  deposit  of  a  layer  of  earth  a  foot  or  so  in  depth  from 
the  falling  roof,  it  follows  that  this  cause  alone  would  result  in  time  in 
raising  the  floor  of  the  town  house  considerably  above  the  surround- 
ing surface,  even  if  built  originally  upon  the  natural  level."  —  Mooney, 
Cherokee,  167,  condensed. 

Thomas  calls  into  question  the  reliability  of  Cherokee  tra- 
dition, in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  mound  building,  and  devotes 
twenty  pages  to  a  review  of  the  evidence  whicK  leads  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Cherokees  were  the  authors  of  the  works  in 
their  territory. —  Burial  Mounds,  87-107. 

THE    MODERN    INDIAN    AS   A    BUILDER   OF    MOUNDS. 

The  subject  of  mound  building  by  existing  or  known  tribes 
will  be  next  considered.  No  comment  or  explanation  is  neces- 
sary in  connection  with  the  quotations  or  statements,  as  their 
meaning  and  purpose  are  apparent. 

Lucien  Carr  has  made  an  exhaustive  examination  of  early 
literature,  proving  conclusively  that  the  Indian,  as  known  to  the 
whites,  cultivated  the  ground  extensively,  was  a  sun  worshipper, 


446  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  constructed  earthen  mounds  and  enclosures,  often  of  great 
size  and  area. 

La  Vega  says :  "  The  Indians  try  to  place  their  villages  on  ele- 
vated sites;  but  inasmuch  as  in  Florida  there  are  not  many  sites  of  this 
kind  where  they  can  conveniently  build,  they  erect  elevations  themselves 
in  the  following  manner:  They  select  the  spot  and  carry  there  a  quan- 
tity of  earth  which  they  form  into  a  kind  of  platform  two  or  three  pikes 
in  height,  the  summit  of  which  is  large  enough  to  give  room  for  twelve, 
fifteen  or  twenty  houses,  to  lodge  the  cacique  and  his  attendants.  At 
the  foot  of  this  elevation  [is]  a  square  place  around  which  the  leading 
men  have  their  houses.  *  *  *  To  ascend  the  elevation  they  have 
a  straight  passage  way  from  bottom  to  top,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  wide." 
The  village  of  Capaha  "has  about  five  hundred  good  houses,  surrounded 
with  a  ditch  ten  or  twelve  cubits  deep,  and  a  width  of  fifty  paces  in 
most  places,  in  others  forty.  The  ditch  is  filled  with  water  from  a  canal 
*  *  three  leagues  in  length.  *  *  The  ditch  *  *  surrounds  the 
town  except  in  one  spot,  which  is  enclosed  by  heavy  beams  planted  in 
the  earth."  —  Essays,  73. 

According  to  the  Century  Dictionary,  "for  some  time  later" 
than  the  fifteenth  century,  the  pike  was  "from  fifteen  to  twenty 
feet  long.  It  continued  in  use,  although  reduced  in  length, 
throughout  the  seventeenth  century." 

Biedma  remarks :  "  The  caciques  of  this  region  were  accustomed 
to  erect  near  the  house  where  they  lived  very  high  mounds,  and  there 
were  some  who  placed  their  houses  on  the  top  of  these  mounds."  — 
Essays,  74. 

"  The  '  Portugese  Gentleman  '  tells  us  that  at  the  very  spot  where 
De  Soto  landed,  generally  supposed  to  be  somewhere  about  Tampa  Bay, 
at  a  town  called  Ucita,  the  house  of  the  chief  '  stood  near  the  shore 
upon  a  very  high  mound  made  by  hand  for  strength.'  Such  mounds  are 
also  spoken  of  by  the  Huguenot  explorers.  They  served  as  the  site  of 
the  chieftain's  house  in  the  villages,  and  from  them  led  a  broad  smooth 
road  through  the  village  to  the  water.  These  descriptions  correspond 
closely  to  those  of  the  remains  which  the  botanists,  John  and  William 
Bartram,   discovered  and  reported  about  a  century  ago." 

"  Within  the  present  century  the  Seminoles  of  Florida  are  said  to 
have  retained  the  custom  of  collecting  the  slain  after  a  battle  and  inter- 
ring them  in  one  large  mound.  The  writer  on  whose  authority  I  state 
this,  adds  that  he  '  observed  on  the  road  from  St.  Augustine  to  Tomaka 
one  mound  which  must  have  covered  two  acres  of  ground,'  but  this  must 
surely  have  been  a  communal  burial  mound." 

"  M.  Le  Page  du  Pratz  *  *  *  observes  that  the  one  on  which 
was  the  house  of  the  Great  Sun  was  '  about  eight  feet  high  and  twenty 
feet  over  on  the  surface.'  He  adds  that  their  temple  *  *  *  .^^s  on 
a  mound  about  the  same  height."  —  Essays,  75,  77,  and  78. 


Mounds  Built  by  Modem  Indians.  447 

"  The  Indians  located  along  the  Yazoo  River  *  are  dispersed  over 
the  country  upon  mounds  of  earth  made  with  their  own  hands,  from 
which  it  is  inferred  that  these  nations  are  very  ancient  and  were  for- 
merly very  numerous,  although  at  the  present  time  they  hardly  number 
two  hundred  and  fifty  persons.'  This  language  would  seem  to  imply 
that  at  this  time  there  were  numerous  mounds  unoccupied."  —  La  Harpe 
(about  A.  D.  1700);  in  B.  E.  12,  653. 

"  In  one  of  their  [the  Natchez]  villages  Dumont  notes  that  the 
cabin  of  the  chief  was  elevated  on  a  mound.  Father  Le  Petit  [says]  the 
residence  of  the  great  chief  or  '  Brother  of  the  Sun,'  as  he  was  called, 
was  erected  on  a  mound  of  earth  carried  for  that  purpose.  When  the 
chief  died,  the  house  was  destroyed,  and  the  same  mound  was  not  used 
as  the  site  of  the  mansion  of  his  successor,  but  was  left  vacant,  and  a 
new  one  was  constructed.  This  interesting  fact  goes  to  explain  the  great 
number  of  mounds  in  some  localities."  —  Essays,  77. 

La  Vega  in  his  history  of  Florida,  page  231,  speaking  of  a  flood  in 
the  Mississippi,  says  that  "During  similar  inundations,  *  *  *  the 
Indians  contrive  to  live  on  any  high  or  lofty  ground  or  hills,  or  if  there 
are  none  they  build  them  with  their  own  hands,  principally  for  the  dwell- 
ing of  the  caciques."  —  B.  E.,  12,  626. 

The  name  Florida  was  at  that  time  applied  to  all  the  south- 
ern country  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  historians  of  De  Soto  make  mention  more  than  once  of  vil- 
lages surrounded  by  walls,  and  ditches  filled  with  water,  the  work  of  the 
Indians  living  in  them.—  B.  E.,  12,  669. 

De  Soto  found  that  "  on  both  sides  of  the  [Mississippi]  River,  the 
natives  lived  in  walled  towns."  —  Carr,   Mounds,  526. 

Lawson  describes  burial  under  mounds  of  earth  and  also 
of  stone;  but  both  seem  to  be  very  small. — Lawson,  42-3. 

The  celebrated  shell  mound  at  Old  Enterprise,  Florida,  stands  on 
a  ridge  partly  on  the  original  sea  beach  and  partly  on  the  swamp  back 
of  it.  In  this  swamp  live  the  mollusks  whose  shells  have  been  so  impor- 
tant in  the  construction  of  the  mound.  It  is  evident  that  the  structure 
is  formed  of  mud  and  marl  brought  to  the  spot  from  the  swamp.  After 
it  had  been  carried  to  a  sufficient  height  to  maintain  a  dry  surface,  it  was 
used  as  a  dwelling  site,  and  its  elevation  gradually  increased  by  refuse 
from  the  houses  and  probably  to  some  extent  by  additional  material 
occasionally  carried  in  from  the  swamp. —  Dall. 

A  group  of  mounds  located  in  the  southern  part  of  Union 
county,  Mississippi,  is  supposed  to  mark  the  site  of  an  Indian 
town  near  which  De  Soto  encamped  one  winter.  In  one  of  the 
mounds,  which  was  at  least  ten  feet  high  before  its  reduction 
by  cultivation,  three  feet  above  the  original  surface  was  a 
saucer-shaped  bed  of  fine  ashes  six  feet  in  diameter,  six  inches 


448  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

thick  at  the  center,  and  running  out  to  an  edge  on  every  side. 
There  was  no  evidence  of  fire  on  the  earth  above  or  below,  and 
there  were  many  thin  layers  as  though  the  ashes  had  been  car- 
ried in  small  quantities  and  carefully  spread  out.  Within  an 
inch  of  the  bottom  of  the  ashes  was  a  small  fragment  of  glass, 
apparently  broken  from  a  thick  bottle.  Resting  upon  the  ashes, 
though  not  extending  to  the  edge  at  any  part,  was  a  confused 
mass  twelve  inches  thick  of  charcoal,  soil,  ashes,  and  broken 
pottery,  in  which  lay  an  iron  knife  and  a  thin  silver  plate 
stamped  with  the  arms  of  Castile  and  Leon.  This  seemed  an 
intrusive  deposit  as  there  was  an  unconformity  between  it  and 
the  surrounding  earth;  but  if  the  mound  had  ever  been  opened 
since  its  construction,  such  excavation  antedated  the  settlement 
of  the  country  by  the  whites,  for  the  first  man  who  settled  in 
the  region  was  at  that  time  still  living  only  a  few  rods  from 
the  mound  and  was  positive  in  his  statement  that  it  had  never 
been  disturbed.  At  any  rate,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
restore  the  ash-bed  to  its  former  condition  had  it  ever  been 
broken;  and  that  it  was  coeval  with  the  body  of  the  structure 
is  proven  by  the  fact  that  it  reached  into  undisturbed  earth  on 
every  side.  Moreover,  there  were  found  just  above  the  ashes 
several  pieces  of  glass  similar  to  that  which  lay  five  inches  be- 
neath their  surface,  two  or  three  of  them  being  chipped  into  the 
form  of  gunflints,  possibly  for  scrapers.  The  knife-blade  was 
almost  destroyed  by  rust;  the  silver  plate  was  not  at  all  cor- 
roded, though  a  hole  had  been  made  in  one  end  apparently  to 
suspend  it  by.  There  was  no  trace  of  bone  or  other  evidence 
of  burial  anywhere  in  the  mound;  but  as  the  entire  mass  of 
clay  of  which  it  was  composed  was  very  wet  and  sticky,  a  skele- 
ton would  have  disappeared  within  a  comparatively  short  time. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  this  mound  was  opened  by  the  Indians 
themselves  very  soon  after  it  was  made,  and  the  loose  earth, 
with  the  relics  mentioned  placed  or  thrown  in.  As  the  whole 
group  was  of  one  character  and  apparently  of  one  period,  we 
are  justified  in  placing  the  date  of  their  construction  at  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  —  some  of  them  earlier,  per- 
haps, some  of  them  later.  Of  the  eleven  mounds  opened  only 
this  one  contained  anything  of  European  origin. 

The  supposed  winter  camp  of  De  Soto,  on  the  Tallahatchee 
river,  is  seven  miles  from  this  place. 


Mounds  Built  by  Modern  Indians.  449 

Jefferson,  in  his  ''  Notes  on  Virginia,"  describes  a  mound 
opened  by  him  near  Charlottesville;  it  was  plainly  an  ossuary 
containing  the  bones  of  those  who  had  died  at  different  times  or 
places  and  were  brought  hither  for  interment.  He  estimates 
their  number  at  not  less  than  one  thousand.  He  further  relates 
that  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  a  party  of  Indians 
traveling  through  this  section  had,  without  inquiry  or  instruc- 
tion, diverged  several  miles  from  their  road  and  taken  a  straight 
course  through  the  woods  to  this  sepulchre,  where  they  re- 
mained several  hours  seemingly  mourning  over  the  dead.  Un- 
fortunately, it  is  not  told  to  what  tribe  they  belonged;  had 
he  recorded  this,  it  might  have  dispelled  our  ignorance  con- 
cerning the  authors  of  the  mounds  in  eastern  Virginia. 

Glass  beads  and  iron  bracelets  were  found  with  skeletons  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  mound  at  Lenoir's,  Tennessee.  —  B.  E.   12,  398. 

"  The  Cherokees  were  in  the  habit  of  using  just  such  ornaments  as 
are  found  in  these  mounds  [in  Cherokee  territory]."  Articles  of  various 
sorts  found  in  the  mounds  of  Eastern  Tennessee  are  "  precisely  similar  " 
to  others  found  about  Indian  village  sites  in  connection  with  objects  of 
European  make,  and  answer  the  description  given  by  early  writers  of  or- 
naments and  utensils  made  and  used  by  Indians  in  this  locality  as  well 
as  in  Virginia. —  Burial  ^Mounds,  94. 

"  If  we  can  point  out  a  well  known  race  of  Indians  who,  at  the  time 
of  the  discovery,  raised  mounds  and  other  earthworks,  not  wholly  dis- 
similar in  character  and  not  much  inferior  in  size  to  those  in  the  Ohio 
Valley,  and  who  resided  not  very  far  away  from  that  region  and  directly 
in  the  line  which  the  ]\Iound  Builders  are  believed  by  all  to  have  followed 
in  their  emigration,  then  this  rule  [that  the  simplest  explanation  of  a 
given  fact  or  series  of  facts  should  always  be  accepted]  constrains  us  to 
accept  for  the  present  this  race  as  the  most  probable  descendants  of  the 
Mound  Builders,  and  seek  no  further  for  Toltecs,  Asiatics  or  Brazilians. 
All  these  conditions  are  filled  by  the  Chahta  tribes." 

"  I  believe  that  the  evidence  is  sufficient  to  justify  us  in  accepting  this 
race  [the  Chahta-Muskokees]  as  the  constructors  of  all  those  extensive 
mounds,  platforms,  artificial  lakes  and  circumvallations  which  are  scattered 
over  the  Gulf  States,  Georgia  and  Florida.  The  earliest  explorers  dis- 
tinctly state  that  such  were  used  and  constructed  by  these  nations  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  probably  had  been  for  many  generations."  — 
Essays,  79  and  80. 

"  Major  Sibley  *  *  stated  that  an  ancient  chief  of  the  Osage  In- 
dians informed  him  while  he  was  a  resident  among  them,  that  a  large  con- 
ical mound,  which  he,  Major  Sibley  was  in  the  habit  of  seeing  every  day 
whilst  he  resided  amongst  them,  was  constructed  when  he  was  a  boy, 

29 


450  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

That  a  chief  of  his  nation  *  *  had  unexpectedly  died  whilst  all  the 
men  of  his  tribe  were  hunting  in  a  distant  country.  His  friends  buried 
him  in  the  usual  manner,  with  his  weapons,  his  earthen  pot,  and  the  usual 
accompaniments,  and  raised  a  small  mound  over  his  remains.  When  the 
nation  returned  from  the  hunt,  this  mound  was  enlarged  at  intervals, 
every  man  assisting  to  carry  materials,  and  thus  the  accumulation  of  earth 
went  on  for  a  long  period  until  it  reached  its  present  height,  when  they 
dressed  it  off  at  the  top  to  a  conical  form.  The  old  chief  farther  said 
that  he  had  been  informed  and  believed,  that  all  the  mounds  had  a  simi- 
lar origin."  —  Featherstonehaugh,  70. 

According  to  later  authors,  the  "old  chief"  was  not  above 
playing  tricks  upon  travelers. 

"  Mr.  Collet,  of  St.  Louis,  says  he  made  a  search  for  this  mound,  but 
was  unable  to  find  it."  —  B.  E.  12,  658. 

Snyder  goes  still  farther,  and  denies  there  are  any  artifi- 
cial mounds  whatever  in  that  part  of  Missouri,  and  asserts  that 
:all  such  features  are  produced 

"  by  aqueous  or  glacial  action,"  although  Indian  burials  may  have 
been  made  upon  some  of  the  latter.  "I  traversed  the  entire  valley  of  the 
Osage  River.  *  *  *  j  saw  no  artificial  earthen  mounds  there  of  any 
description." — ^  Snyder,  Osages. 

At  Bellaire,  Michigan,  north-east  from  Traverse  City,  in 
a  mound  four  feet  high  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  with  a 
slight  depression  around  the  base,  was  a  skeleton,  sitting,  with 
feet  extended.  By  it  was  the  outer  whorl  of  a  Busycon  shell, 
the  outer  surface  of  which  was  covered  with  incised  lines  cross- 
ing each  other  practically  at  right  angles.  The  skull  was  very 
thin,  compact  as  ivory  almost,  and  unusually  symmetrical.  The 
crown  and  forehead  were  very  full  and  prominent,  indicating 
a  high  intellectual  development.  There  was  nothing  Indian  in 
its  appearance,  and  its  presence  under  such  conditions  is  puz- 
zling. Possibly  one  of  the  early  Jesuits  was  interred  here  by 
his  proselytes. 

On  Rapid  river  near  Traverse  City,  Michigan,  are  two 
•mounds,  each  about  six  feet  high  and  twenty  feet  across.  An 
old  Chippewa  told  me  that  one  was  erected  over  Sioux,  the 
-other  over  Chippev/as,  slain  in  a  battle  here  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Several  small  mounds  in  upper 
Michigan  cover  Sioux,  Iroquois  and  Chippewas ;  the  Indians 
about  there  preserve  traditions  of  the  fights  in  which  these  were 


Mounds  Built  by  Modern  Indians.  451 

slain  and  in  some  cases  know  the  name  or  family  of  one  who 
is  buried  in  a  given  tumulus.  A  few  years  ago  one  of  these 
mounds  was  opened  by  some  wood-cutters  and  the  bones  scat- 
tered around.  The  Indians  were  furious  when  they  knew  of  it, 
and  endeavored  to  find  the  perpetrators,  swearing  to  slay  them 
if  they  could  be  identified. 

"  A  small  burial  mound  on  the  west  shore  of  Ottawa  Point"  was 
opened.  "  The  utensils,  trinkets,  &c.,  were  all  of  a  period  subsequent  to 
the  advent  of  the  white  man."  Consequently,  Mr.  Gillman  decides  that 
this  mound  was  not  built  by  a  Mound  Builder.  He  says  "such  mounds 
are  frequent  all  along  the  lake  shore,  and  seems  to  be  invariably  of  more 
recent  origin  than  the  first-described  works.  They  are  generally  quite 
small."  —  Gillman,    M.   B.,  379. 

There  is  a  considerable  number  of  other  mounds  in  the 
region  within  a  hundred  miles  around  Mackinac  Island,  which 
are  known  to  be  the  work  of  Sioux,  Chippewas  and  Iroquois. 
There  are  traditions,  also,  among  the  two  first  named,  of  a  race 
in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  known  as  the  ''  Ground  House 
Indians "  from  their  custom  of  banking  and  covering  their 
houses  with  earth ;  they  buried  their  dead  in  mounds  near  the 
dwellings.  These  were  exterminated  in  the  first  half  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century. — O.  A.  H.,  Dec,  1888. 

"  I  must  remark  that  whatever  be  the  legitimate  inference  drawn 
from  similar  works  and  remains  in  other  places,  concerning  the  state  of 
civilization  attained  by  the  Mound  Builders,  the  evidence  here  [he  had 
been  exploring  in  the  vicinity  of  Racine]  goes  to  prove  that  they  were  an 
extremely  barbarous  people,  in  no  respect  superior  to  most  of  the  savage 
tribes  of  modern  Indians."  —  Dr.  P.  R.  Hoy:  quoted  by  Lapham,  10. 

At  the  Pipe-Stone  quarries  "is  a  mound  of  a  conical  form,  of  ten 
feet  height,  which  was  erected  over  the  body  of  a  distinguished  young 
man,  son  of  a  Sioux  chief."  who  was  killed  there  about  1835. —  Catlin, 
Indians,  II,  170,  note. 

Major  Powell  "has  himself  seen  two  burial  mounds  in  process  of 
construction  —  one  in  Utah,  *  *  *  the  other  ^  ^  ^  {^  the  valley 
of  the  Pitt  river."  "The  evidence  in  favor  of  the  Indian  origin  of  the 
western  structures  has  been  so  great  and  the  facts  have  been  so  well 
known  that  writers  have  rarely  attributed  them  to  prehistoric  peoples." 
—  Introduction,   B.   E.   12,   xlvii. 

Uncas,  the  Mohegan,  killed  Miantonomo,  the  Narragansett.  in  1643; 
he  "was  buried  there  on  the  scene  of  his  defeat.  *  *  *  ^^d  for  years 
afterward,  *  *  *  parties  of  Narragansetts  used  to  visit  the  spot.  * 
*  *  A  heap  of  stones  was  raised  over  the  grave,  and  no  Narragansett 
came  near  without  adding  to  the  pile."  —  Fiske:   172. 


452  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  A  stockade  fort  had  been  reared  [by  the  Indians]  near  the  village 
[Old  Piqua]  *  *  *'  which  included  a  space  of  about  two  acres."  — 
Howe:  I,  390. 

"  The  Huron-Iroquois  were  accustomed  to  fortify  their  forts  or 
castles  with  a  ditch  and  wall,  the  latter  surmounted  by  a  stockade."  — 
Carr,  Mounds,  592. 

Such  structures  as  these  and  the  next  would  form  em- 
bankments. 

In  1637,  the  Pequot  fort  near  where  Stonington,  [Conn.,]  now 
stands  "was  enclosed  by  a  circle  of  two  or  three  acres  in  area,  girdled 
by  a  palisade  of  sturdy  sapling  trunks,  set  firm  and  deep  into  the  ground, 
the  narrow  interstices  between  them  serving  as  loop-holes  wherefrom 
to  reconnoitre  any  one  passing  by  and  to  shoot  at  assailants." — Fiske :    132. 

"  The  most  elaborate  structure  used  for  a  dwelling  by  the  tribes 
of  the  west  was  the  earth  lodge.  The  outline  —  a  circle  with  an  oblong 
projection  toward  the  east — was  carefully  measured  and  traced  on  the 
ground,  the  sod  cut  from  within  the  figure,  and  the  earth  well  tramped 
by  the  feet  of  the  builders.  The  framework  was  of  poles,  and  the  dome- 
shaped  roof  of  closely  laid  poles  was  supported  by  large  posts,  five  or 
more  in  number,  set  in  a  circle  a  little  back  of  the  central  fire-place. 
Outside  the  wall  of  poles  great  bundles  of  the  coarse  prairie  grass  were 
laid,  and  over  all  a  double  layer  of  sods,  so  that  when  completed  the  wall 
was  nearly  two  feet  thick  at  the  bottom,  and  sloped  gently  to  the  line 
where  it  joined  the  roof,  which  was  also  very  thick.  *  *  *  The  ex- 
terior resembles  a  mound  more  than  a  dwelling."  —  Fletcher:  Omahas. 

The  decay  of  such  a  house  would  produce  a  small  circular 
embankment  like  those  of  so  frequent  occurence  in  Ohio. 

Catlin  gives  a  chart  showing  what  he  believes  to  be  Man- 
dan  remains,  from  their  last  village  back  to  the  fnouth  of  the 
Kaskaskia.  From  the  similarity  of  the  Mandan  works  to  those 
in  Ohio,  he  thinks  it  probable  they  all  belong  to  this  tribe;  a 
supposition  which  is  strengthened  by  the  close  resemblance  of 
the  pottery  found  in  the  two  regions. — Catlin :  Indians,  appendix. 

"  This  tribe  is  at  present  located  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri, 
about  1800  miles  above  St.  Louis,  and  200  below  the  Mouth  of  the  Yellow 
Stone  river.  They  have  two  villages  and  number  about  200  souls.  These 
people  formerly  lived  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  farther  down  the  river,  in 
ten  contiguous  villages ;  the  marks  or  ruins  of  which  are  yet  plainly  to  be 
seen.  At  that  period,  evidently  their  numbers  were  much  greater  than  at 
the  present  day.  I  think,  for  various  reasons,  that  they  formerly  occupied 
the  lower  part  of  the  Missouri,  and  even  the  Ohio  and  Muskingum. 
The  river  protects  two  sides  of  the  village ;  they  have  therefore  but  one 
side  to  protect,  which  is  effectually  done  by  a  strong  piquet,  and  a  ditch 
inside  of  it,  of  three  or  four  feet  in  depth.     The  piquet  is  composed  of 


Use  of  Earth  in  Building  by  Mandan  Indians.         453 

timbers  of  a  foot  or  more  in  diameter,  and  eighteen  feet  high,  set  firmly 
in  the  ground  at  sufficient  distances  from  each  other  to  admit  of  guns 
and  other  missiles  to  be  fired  between  them.  The  ditch  (unlike  that  of 
civilized  modes  of  fortification)  is  inside  of  the  piquet,  in  which  their 
warriors  screen  their  bodies,  whilst  they  are  reloading  and  discharging 
their  weapons  through  the  piquets.  Their  lodges  appear  from  without, 
to  be  built  entirely  of  earth.  They  all  have  a  circular  form,  and  are  from 
forty  to  sixty  feet  in  diameter.  Their  foundations  are  prepared  by  dig- 
ging some  two  feet  in  the  ground.  The  superstructure  is  then  produced, 
by  arranging,  inside  of  this  circular  excavation,  firmly  fixed  in  the  ground 
and  resting  against  the  bank,  a  barrier  or  wall  of  timbers,  some  eight  or 
nine  inches  in  diameter,  of  equal  height  (about  six  feet)  placed  on  end, 
and  resting  against  each  other,  supported  by  a  formidable  embankment 
of  earth  raised  against  them  outside;  then  resting  upon  the  tops  of  these 
timbers  or  piles  are  others  of  equal  size  and  equal  in  numbers,  of  twenty 
or  twenty-five  feet  in  length,  resting  firmly  against  each  other,  and  send- 
ing their  upper  or  small  ends  toward  the  center  and  top  of  the  lodge; 
rising  at  an  angle  of  about  forty-five  degrees  to  the  apex  or  sky-light, 
which  is  about  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter,  answering  as  a  chimney 
and  a  sky-light  at  the  same  time.  The  roof  of  the  lodge  being  thus 
formed,  is  supported  by  beams  passing  around  the  inner  part  of  the  lodge 
about  the  middle  of  these  poles  or  timbers,  and  themselves  upheld  by  four 
or  five  large  posts  passing  down  to  the  fioor  of  the  lodge.  On  the  top  of, 
and  over  the  poles  forming  the  roof,  is  placed  a  complete  mat  of  willow- 
boughs,  of  half  a  foot  or  more  in  thickness,  which  protects  the  timbers 
from  the  dampness  of  the  earth,  with  which  the  lodge  is  covered  from 
bottom  to  top,  to  the  depth  of  two  or  three  feet;  and  then  with  a  hard  or 
tough  clay,  which  is  impervious  to  water.  At  intervals  there  is  a  large 
post,  fixed  quite  firm  in  the  ground,  and  six  or  seven  feet  high,  with  large 
wooden  pegs  or  bolts  in  it,  on  which  are  hung  all  manner  of  personal 
effects."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  80-3,  condensed. 

The  presence  of  posts  on  which  various  articles  were  hung 
suggests  an  explanation  for  the  holes  found  at  random  under 
mounds  or  on  the  sites  of  villages,  where  there  are  other  evi- 
dences of  the  former  existence  of  houses. 

"The  lodges  are  covered  with  earth,  and  so  compactly  fixed  by  long 
use,  that  men,  women  and  children  recline  and  play  upon  their  tops  in 
pleasant  weather."  They  "  were  of  40  to  60  feet  in  diameter."  —  Catlin, 
Mandans,  349. 

The  ]Minatares  and  the  Riccaries  also  had  earth-covered  wigwams. 
—  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  186  and  204. 

"  The  Ricara  lodges  are  in  a  circular  or  octagonal  form,  and  gen- 
erally about  thirty  or  forty  feet  in  diameter;  they  are  made  by  placing 
forked  posts  about  six  feet  high  around  the  circumference  of  a  circle; 
these  are  joined  by  poles  from  one  fork  to  another,  which  are  supported 


454  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

also  by  other  forked  poles  slanting  from  the  ground ;  in  the  center  o£ 
the  lodge  are  placed  four  higher  forks,  about  fifteen  feet  in  length,  con- 
nected together  by  beams ;  from  these  to  the  lower  poles  the  rafters  of  the 
roof  are  extended  so  as  to  leave  a  vacancy  in  the  middle  for  the  smoke ; 
the  frame  of  the  building  is  then  covered  with  willow  branches,  with 
which  is  interwoven  grass,  and  over  this  is  mud  or  clay." —  L.  &  C,  I, 
106. 

"  The  Mandans  sacrifice  their  fingers  to  the  great  Spirit,  and  of 
their  worldly  goods,  the  best  and  the  most  costly.  *  *  *  A  white 
buffalo  robe  is  a  great  curiosity,  even  in  the  country  of  buffaloes,  and  will 
always  command  an  almost  incredible  price,  from  its  extreme  scarcity; 
and  then,  from  its  being  the  most  costly  article  of  traffic  in  these  regions,, 
it  is  usually  converted  into  a  sacrifice,  being  offered  to  the  Great  Spirit, 
as  the  most  acceptable  gift  that  can  be  procured."  —  Catlin,  Indians, 
I,  133. 

"  A  stranger  in  the  Mandan  village  is  first  struck  with  the  different 
shades  of  complexion,  and  various  colors  of  hair  which  he  sees  in  a 
crowd  about  him.  *  *  *  There  are  a  great  many  of  these  people  whose 
complexions  appear  as  light  as  half-breeds;  and  amongst  the  women  par- 
ticularly, there  are  many  whose  skins  are  almost  white,  with  the  most 
pleasing  symmetry  and  proportion  of  features;  with  hazel,  with  gray, 
and  with  blue  eyes  *  *  *  there  may  be  seen  every  shade  and  color  of 
hair  that  can  be  seen  in  our  own  country,  with  the  exception  of  red  or 
auburn,  which  is  not  to  be  found.  *  *  *  Governor  Clark  told  me, 
before  I  started  for  this  place,  that  I  would  find  the  Mandans  a  strange 
people  and  half  white."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  93. 

"  The  Mandans  are  a  proud,  high-toned  tribe,  and  could  not  bear  the 
idea  of  losing  their  name  and  nationality  by  being  amalgamated  with 
the  Arickaras  or  any  other  nation. 

"  There  are  great  diversities  of  opinions  as  to  what  tribe  or  tribes 
the  Mandans  originally  belonged.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  they  are  a  dis- 
tinct tribe,  or  at  least  their  relationship  to  other  tribes  is  so  very  remote 
that  it  cannot  now  be  traced.  In  their  language,  manners,  customs,  and 
modes  of  life,  they  are  altogether  different  from  the  Indians  occupying 
that  region  of  country;  and  in  fact  differing  from  any  Indians  on  the  con- 
tinent of  America,  so  far  as  my  observation  extends ;  and  I  have  some 
knowledge  of  a  large  majority  of  the  existing  tribes. 

''  Apart  from  their  peculiar  language  and  habits,  there  is  a  physical 
peculiarity.  A  large  portion  of  the  ]\Iandans  have  gray  hair,  and  blue 
or  light  brown  eyes,  with  a  Jewish  cast  of  features.  It  is  nothing  un- 
common to  see  children  of  both  sexes,  from  five  to  six  years  of  age, 
with  hair  perfectly  gray.  They  are  also  much  fairer  than  the  prairie  or 
mountain  tribes ;  though  this  may  be  somewhat  attributable  to  the  fact  of 
their  living  in  dirt  lodges,  and  less  exposed  to  the  sun  than  the  prairie 
tribes. 

"  The  scenes  described  by  Catlin,  existed  almost  entirely  in  the 
fertile  imagination  of  that  gentleman."  —  D.   D.   ]\Iitchell. 


Earthen  Enclosures  made  by  Mandans.  455 

In  a  personal  letter  to  Professor  Henry,  Mr.  Kipp,  who  lived  in 
the  Mandan  village  for  thirteen  years,  asserts  that  Catlin's  statements 
in  regard  to  the  Mandan  religious  rites,  are  absolutely  accurate.  "It 
is  a  great  pity  that  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  who  never  visited  the  Mandans, 
should  have  put  forth  such  false  and  unfounded  assertions  as  these  on  a 
subject  so  important  to  science,  and  so  well  established  by  approved 
facts  "  —  Kipp,  437. 

At  Little  Bow  Creek,  about  twelve  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Yankton,  was  ''an  old  village  of  the  same  name.  This  village,  of  which 
nothing  remains  but  the  mound  of  earth  about  four  feet  high  surrounding 
it,  was  built  by  a  Maha  chief  named  Little  Bow,  who  being  displeased 
with  Blackbird,  the  late  king,  seceded  with  two  hundred  followers  and 
settled  at  this  spot,  which  is  now  abandoned,  as  the  two  villages  have 
reunited."  —  L.  &  C,  I,  54. 

"  Immediately  opposite  our  camp  [somewhere  among  the  Ricara 
villages  below  the  Cannonball  River]  on  the  north  side  are  the  ruins  of 
an  ancient  fortification,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  washed  into  the  river; 
nor  could  we  discern  more  than  that  the  walls  are  eight  or  ten  feet  high.'* 
—  L.  &  C,  I,  108. 

About  thirty  miles  above  the  Cannonball  River,  "on  a  point  of  a 
hill  ninety  feet  above  the  plain,  are  the  remains  of  an  old  village  which  is 
high,  strong,  and  has  been  fortified ;  this  our  chief  tells  us  is  the  remains 
of  one  of  the  Mandan  villages,  and  are  the  first  ruins  which  we  have 
seen  of  that  nation."  Twelve  miles  farther  up  "  immediately  below  [a] 
bluff  and  on  the  declivity  of  a  hill,  are  the  remains  of  a  village  covering 
six  or  eight  acres,  formerly  occupied  by  the  Mandans,  who,  says  our 
Ricara  chief,  once  lived  in  a  number  of  villages  on  each  side  of  the  river, 
till  the  Sioux  forced  them  forty  miles  higher ;  whence,  after  a  few  years 
residence  they  moved  to  their  present  position."  [Further  mention  is 
made  of]  "these  villages  *  *  *  nine  in  number,  scattered  along  each 
side  of  the  river  within  a  space  of  twenty  miles ;  almost  all  that  remains 
of  them  is  the  wall  which  surrounded  them,  the  fallen  heaps  of  earth  which 
covered  the  houses,  and  occasionally  human  skulls  and  the  bones  and 
teeth  of  men,  and  different  animals,  which  are  scattered  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground." 

Several  other  abandoned  Mandan  villages  were  passed,  before  their 
town  was  reached. —  L.  &  C,  I,  112. 

The  immense  walls  described  on  pages  102-3  must  be  due  to 
Mandans,  as  we  know  of  no  other  tribe  to  whom  they  could 
be  assigned;  provided,  of  course,  they  are  artificial,  of  which 
fact  Lewis  and  Clark  seemed  to  have  no  doubt. 

REPORTED    OBJECTS    OF    MODERN    DATE^    EXHUMED    FROM    MOUNDS. 

The  knowledge  that  many  mounds,  with  their  contents,  are 
of  recent  origin ;    the  reported   discovery   in   others   of  articles 


456  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

which  could  not  be  produced  by  means  at  command  of  a  prim- 
itive artisan;  an  instinctive  protest  against  the  disposition  to 
put  forth  vague  speculations  as  ascertained  facts;  desire  to  cor- 
rect unfounded  belief  in  a  "  high  civilization ;"  —  are  responsible 
'for  ,a  tendency  on  the  part  of  some  students  to  modernize 
to  a  greater  degree  than  facts  will  warrant.  The  bone  object 
mentioned  on  page  348  is  one  example ;  others  will  appear  on 
subsequent  pages.  Two  instances  which  have  attained  undue 
prominence  led  Carr  to  say, 

"  That  some  of  them  were  built  after  the  arrival  of  the  whites     * 

*  *  is  proved  by  the  contents  of  mounds  opened  at  Circleville  and 
Marietta."  —  Carr,  588. 

He  refers  to  Atwater's  record  of  explorations,  which  is 
next  presented. 

In  the  center  of  the  circle  at  Circleville  was  a  mound  ''about  ten  feet 
in  height,  and  several  rods  in  diameter  at  the  base."  The  level  summit 
"was  nearly  thirty  feet  in  diameter.  *  *  *  The  writer  was  present  at 
its  removal,  and  carefully  examined  the  contents.  It  contained,  (1)  Two 
human  skeletons,  lying  on  what  had  been  the  original  surface  of  the  earth. 
(2)  A  great  quantity  of  arrow  heads  and  spear  heads.  (3)  The  handle 
either  of  a  small  sword  or  a  large  knife,  made  of  an  elk's  horn ;  around 
the  end  where  the  blade  had  been  inserted,  was  a  ferrule  of  silver,  which, 
though  black,  was  not  much  injured  by  time.  Though  the  handle  showed 
the  hole  where  the  blade  had  been  inserted,  yet  no  iron  was  found,  but 
an  oxyde  remained  of  similar  shape  and  size.  (4)  Charcoal  and  wood 
ashes,  on  which  these  articles  lay,  which  was  surrounded  by  several  bricks 
very  well  burnt.  (5)  [A  plate  of  mica]  about  three  feet  in  length,  one 
foot  and  a  half  in  breadth,  and  one  inch  and  a  half  in  thickness.  (G)  A 
plate  of  iron,  which  had  become  an  oxyde;  but  before  it  was  disturbed  by 
the  spade,  resembled  a  plate  of  cast  iron."  —  Atwater,  177. 

Dr.  Hildreth  describes  various  relics  found  in  a  mound  at  Marietta 
in  1819.  '■'Lying  immediately  over,  or  on  the  forehead  of  the  body,  were 
found  three  large  circular  bosses,  or  ornaments  for  a  sword  belt,  or  a 
buckler ;  they  are  composed  of  copper  overlaid  with  a  thick  plate  of  sil- 
ver. *  *  *  Two  small  pieces  of  the  leather  were  found  lying  between 
the  plates  of  one  of  the  bosses ;  they  resemble  the  skin  of  an  old  mummy. 

*  *  *  Around  the  rivet  of  one  of  them  is  a  small  quantity  of  flax  or 
hemp.  Near  the  side  of  the  body  was  found  a  plate  of  silver  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  upper  part  of  a  sword  scabbard ;  it  is  six  inches 
in  length  and  two  inches  in  breadth,  and  weighs  one  ounce;  it  has  no  or- 
naments or  figures,  but  has  three  longitudinal  ridges.  *  *  *  jt  seems 
to  have  been  fastened  to  the  scabbard  by  three  or  four  rivets,  the  holes 
of  which  yet  remain  in  the  silver.  *  *  *  Two  or  three  broken  pieces 
cf  a  copper  tube,   were  also   found,   filled  with   iron   rust.     These  pieces 


Reported  Modern  Objects  from  Circleville  and  Marietta.    457 

from  their  appearance,  composed  the  lower  end  of  the  scabbard  near  the 
point  of  the  sword.  No  sign  of  the  sword  itself  was  discovered,  except 
the  appearance  of  rust  above  mentioned."  —  Atwater,  168. 

Thomas  also  accepts  without  reserve  Atwater's  statement 
in  regard  to  the  knife  or  sword  said  to  have  been  taken  from 
the  mound  at  Circleville,  and  says. 

"We  therefore  feel  fully  justified  in  giving  this  mound  as  one  ex- 
ample where  evidence  of  contact  with  European  civilization  was  found." 
—  B.  E.  12,  716. 

Putnam,  however,  who  has  had  the  opportunity  of  m-aking 
a  careful  examination  and  analysis  of  the  articles  themselves, 
demonstrates  the  incorrectness  of  such  conclusions,  by  proving 
that  similar  specimens  are  not  rare,  and  that  both  Atwater  and 
Hildreth  were  mistaken  in  their   identification   of  them. 

So  far  as  Atwater's  "sword  handle"  from  the  Circleville  mound  is 
concerned,  "-similar  pieees  cut  from  antler  have  since  proved  to  be  com- 
mon and  are  generally  believed  to  be  handles  for  small  drills  and  knives 
made  of  stone  or  copper.  *  *  *  One  has  been  found  with  a  small 
stone  knife  still  in  the  perforated  end,  and  others  with  small  awl-like 
points  of  copper  inserted."  As  to  the  "plate  of  cast-iron"  oxide,  "some- 
thing more  definite  than  this  statement  is  required."  —  Putnam,  Iron,  350. 

In  the  Marietta  mound  "not  a  shadow  of  a  sword  can  be  traced  in 
this  connection;  the  point  of  the  supposed  scabbard  is  a  common  copper 
bead;  the  supposed  upper  part  of  the  scabbard  is  an  ornament  of  a  par- 
ticular pattern,  of  which  three  others  almost  identical  in  shape  are  known 
from  other  mounds  [one  of  copper  from  Cincinnati;  one  of  copper  from 
Franklin,  Tennessee;  one  of  meteoric  iron  from  the  Little  Miami  valley], 
and  the  'bosses'  or  supposed  ornaments  of  a  sword  belt  are  ear  rings.  * 
*  *  Not  a  particle  of  iron  rust  could  be  found  in  the  folds  and  cavities 
of  the  bead,  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  oxide  of  copper  was 
mistaken  by  Dr.  Hildreth  for  oxide  of  iron.  *  *  *  The  copper  had 
changed  to  a  red  carbonate."  —  Putnam,  Iron,  361. 

What  the  supposed  "  plate  of  cast-iron  "  may  have  been, 
it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  iron  in  clay  often  segregates  in  such 
a  way  as  to  resemble  iron  rust;  sufificiently,  at  least,  to  deceive 
one  who  can  mistake  irregular  masses  of  burned  earth  for 
**  bricks."  Powdered  hematite  would  produce  the  same  appear- 
ance. 

Another  remarkable  find  at  INIarietta  has  been  reported; 
it  has  escaped  comment  for  the  reason,  probably,  that  the  speci- 
men is  so  evidentlv  modern. 


458  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  A  gold-lined  cup  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone  was  found  in  a 
mound  at  Marietta,  half  a  mile  east  of  the  enclosures.  A  stream  had 
gradually  undermined  the  mound,  and  in  this  situation  the  cup  was 
noticed  by  the  discoverer.  It  is  a  perfectly  plain,  heavy  piece  of  work- 
manship, and  appears  to  be  of  solid  silver,  with  the  bottom  soldered  to 
the  upper  portion."  —  Schoolcraft,  Mines,  276,  condensed. 

The  author  seems  to  be  convinced  that  it  is  a  genuine 
mound  relic ;  though  he  fails  to  state  the  depth  at  which  it  was 
found.  The  statement  should,  perhaps,  be  set  aside  as  without 
proper  authentication,  and  with  it,  that  of  Haywood  who,  writ- 
ing of  the  Grave  Creek  mound  -fifteen  years  before  it  was  first 
opened,  says: 

"  In  the  interior  of  this  mound,  human  bones  were  found,  of  uncom- 
monly large  size ;  [also]  two  or  three  plates  of  brass,  with  characters 
inscribed  upon  them  resembling  letters,  but  of  what  alphabet  no  one 
could  tell."  —  Haywood,  330.- 

Thomas  makes  reference  to  various  articles,  manufactured 
by  whites,  found  in  mounds  in  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  northern 
Ohio,  southern  Illinois,  Arkansas,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Flor- 
ida and  Mississippi. —  B.  E.  I2,  713-8. 

In  every  one  of  these  cases,  the  mounds  whose  measure- 
ments are  given  are  quite  small,  and  none  of  them  are  in  the 
"Ohio  Mound  Builder"  region,  but  in  localities  where  there 
is  plenty  of  other  evidence  that  the  later  Indians  made  small  tu- 
muli. To  cite  a  single  instance,  he  gives  a  plan  of  several  mounds 
from  ''2  to  4  feet  high,"  of  Iowa  and  Pottawatomie  Indians  who 
were  buried  in  1830.  Black  Hawk's  grave  is  between  the  two 
groups;  it  is  even  smaller  than  the  others. —  B.  E.  12,  iii. 

It  is  rather  straining  a  point  to  adduce  such  evidence  as  this 
in  attempting  to  prove  a  recent  origin  for  the  large  mounds  in 
which  no  modern  articles  have  been  discovered. 

Under  the  skull  at  the  bottom  of  a  mound  five  feet  high  in  Loudon 
County,  Tennessee,  was  an  engraved  tablet  of  stone.  "  The  engraved 
characters  on  it  are  beyond  question  letters  of  the  Cherokee  alphabet 
said  to  have  been  invented  *  *  *  about  1821."  Yet  the  mound,  in 
1881,  "  had  been  covered  by  a  cluster  of  trees  and  grapevines  as  long 
ago  as  the  oldest  settler  in  the  locality  could  recollect " ;  and  one  of  them 
"  stated  that  he  had  cut  trees  from  it  forty  years  ago."  —  B.  E.  12,  393. 

It  is  not  very  clear  what  we  are  expected  to  infer  from  this 
paragraph  unless  it  be  that  the  mound  was  erected  as  late  as 
1 82 1.     But  it  is  as  easy  to  believe  that  Se-quo-yah,  in  construct- 


Iron  from  an  Indian  Burial  Place.  459 

ing  his  alphabet,  used  marks  resembhng  some  that  another  person 
had  formed,  as  to  think  he  would  invent  a  series  of  signs  or  char- 
acters utterly  unlike  any  others  ever  thought  of.  Trees  would 
scarcely  grow  to  a  size  worth  cutting  in  twenty  years ;  and  if 
Cherokees  had  continued  to  build  mounds  for  35  years  after  the 
country  was  settled,  we  w^ould  find  the  fact  stated  in  some  of  the 
early  histories. 

In  his  effort  to  "make  out  a  case"  Thomas  gives  two  entirely 
different  descriptions  of  a  peculiar  form  of  interment  in  Cald- 
well county,  North  Carolina. 

"The  T.  F.  Nelson  triangle  is  not  a  mound  but  simply  a  burial  pit  C) 
in  the  form  of  a  triangle,  the  two  longest  sides  each  48  feet  and 
the  base  32  feet,  in  which  the  bodies  and  accompanying  articles  were 
deposited,  and  then  covered  over,  but  not  heaped  up  into  a  mound; 
or,  if  so,  it  had  subsequently  settled  until  on  a  level  with  the  natural 
surface  of  the  ground.  The  depth  of  the  original  excavation  varied 
from  2^  to  3  feet.  With  one  skeleton,  the  principal  personage  of  the 
group,  were  five  elongate  copper  beads  or  rather  small  cylinders  vary- 
ing in  length  from  one  and  a  quarter  to  four  and  a  half  inches.  These 
are  made  of  thin  pieces  of  copper  cut  into  strips  and  then  rolled  together 
so  that  the  edges  meet  in  a  straight  joint  on  one  side.  At  his  right 
hand  were  four  O  iron  specimens,  much  corroded  but  still  showing 
the  form."  *  *  *  "^^  ^/j^  bottom  of  one  of  the  largest  mounds  found 
in  this  region  (^),  the  T.  F,  Nelson  triangle  heretofore  described,  and 
by  the  side  of  the  principal  personage  in  it,  were  discovered  three  C) 
pieces  of  iron.  A  chemical  examination  shows  that  these  were  not  made 
of  meteoric  iron."  —  Burial  Mounds,  63  and  90,  condensed. 

This  error  is  repeated  in  a  later  report.  Thomas  flatly  con- 
tradicts himself  by  saying  that  "It  is  simply  a  burial  pit.  *  *  * 
The  top  was  not  rounded  up,  but  level  with  the  surrounding  sur- 
face," and  subsequently  referring  to  specimens  from  the  pit  as 
"The  fragments  of  iron  implements  obtained  from  a  mound." — 
B.  E.  12,  335  and  715. 

Evidently  the  specimens  were  exhumed  from  a  burial  pit' 
differing  only  in  its  triangular  form  from  many  others  known, 
which  are  the  cemeteries  of  modern  Indians. 

In  the  account  on  pages  97-100,  of  the  works  at  Aztalan,  the 
true  nature  of  the  so-called  "bricks"  is  explained.  Some  cases 
of  "sun-burned  bricks"  are  also  reported. 

"  The  north  side  of  the  great  mound  at  Seltzertown,  Mississippi, 
is   supported  by   a   wall   of   sun-dried  bricks,   two   feet  thick,   filled   with 

^  Italics  not  in  the  original. 


460  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

grasses,  rushes  and  leaves.  Angular  tumuli  mark  the  corners  which  were 
formed  of  large  bricks  retaining  the  impression  of  human  hands.  Pro- 
fessor Swallow  has  also  observed  the  imprint  of  human  hands  in  the 
clay  which  enters  into  some  of  the  ancient  structures  in  the  region  of 
New  Madrid."  —  Foster,  112. 

The  embankments  near  Helena,  Arkansas,  were  built  of  sun-dried 
bricks,  mixed  with  stems  and  leaves  of  cane.  I  could  in  no  instance, 
find  any  evidence  of  the  cane  having  been  charred  by  hre.  Nor  is 
there  any  appearance  of  finished  brick,  of  which  it  has  been  said  this 
wall  is  built.  The  clay  and  stems  of  cane  appear  to  have  been  mixed 
together  and  moulded  into  a  wall,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  pese." 
—  Cox;  quoted  by  Foster,  113,  condensed. 

There  is  no  probability  that  such  ''bricks, "  or  bricks  of  any 
kind  as  we  understand  the  term,  were  ever  made  this  side  of  the 
Pueblos.  The  features  mentioned  in  the  two  preceding  extracts 
are  remains  of  some  kind  of  structures  whose  nature  can  not 
be  understood  from  the  description.  The  construction  of  the 
"walls"  was  no  doubt  similar  to  that  of  the  houses. 

According  to  Tonti,  the  temple  of  the  Tensa  Indians  "  was  about 
40  feet  square,  and  the  walls,  10  feet  high  and  1  foot  thick,  were  made  of 
earth  and  straw  mixed.  The  roof  was  dome-shaped,  and  about  15  feet 
high.  Around  the  temple  were  strong  mud  walls.  *  *  *  We  are  also 
told  that,  at  one  time,  these  temples  were  quite  common  throughout 
all  the  vast  region  then  known  as  Florida,  a  majority  of  the  tribes  and 
even  many  of  the  villages  having  their  own,  and  keeping  up  in  them 
perpetual  fires."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  540. 

Gravier  says  of  the  Arkansas  Indians  in  1700,  "  Their  cabins  are 
round  and  vaulted.  They  are  lathed  with  canes  and  plastered  with 
mud  from  bottom  to  top,  within  and  without,  with  a  good  covering  of 
straw."  —  Shea,   134. 

Figure  139  (117,  B.  E.  12,  p.  208)  shows  the  clay  floor  of  a  three- 
room  house  in  Poinsett  County,  Arkansas;  and  figure  140  (118,  B.  E.  12,  p. 
209)  shows  the  method  of  lathing  the  primitive  dwellings  in  the  same 
region.  A  mound  was  erected,  high  enough  to  raise  the  surface  above 
the  overflow  of  this  swampy  region,  except  in  the  time  of  unusual  floods, 
to  serve  as  a  foundation.  In  this  particular  instance,  there  were  three 
rooms,  each  about  twelve  feet  square,  with  floors  of  clay;  in  room  a 
blocks  were  roughly  moulded  and  packed  in,  while  in  h  and  d  the  clay 
was  laid  in  a  solid  mass.  The  walls  were  formed  by  upright  posts,  about 
two  feet  apart,  as  indicated  by  the  black  circles.  Cane  or  reed  lathing 
was  interwoven  on  these  posts  and  thickly  coated  with  clay  inside  and 
out.  When  one  of  these  buildings  was  destroyed  by  fire,  the  floor  was 
burned  to  a  varying  depth,  and  the  plastering  converted  into  a  brick-like 
mass.  This  is  the  whole  basis  for  the  reported  "  brick  floors  "  or  "  brick 
walls"    so    often    reported.     Numerous    excavations    show    the    truth    of 


Mud-plastered  Walls  and  Floors  Burned  to  ''Bricks."  461 

this  statement.  First,  there  is  the  surface  soil;  next  below,  these  sup- 
posed "bricks,"  bearing  the  imprints  of  canes  and  twigs  and  sometimes 
with  impressions  of  grass  or  weeds  worked  into  the  clay  when  put  upon 


Figure  139. 


«»•'-«■■  i.:'vl..---v.l*-.|B 

Figure  140  —  Hut  with  Mud  Walls  and  Floor;    Arkansas. 

the  walls,  as  plasterers  mix  hair  with  mortar;  beneath  this  are*  ash- 
beds,  implements  and  pottery  fragments,  resting  on  the  clay  floor.  Below 
the  floor  is  the  earth  of  the  mound.  If  further  evidence  were  needed, 
it  is  to  be  had  in  the  fact  that  not  infrequently  the  nests  of  mud-daubers, 
burned  hard,  are  found  adhering  to  the  smooth  under  surface  of  these 
fallen  walls.—  B.   E.   12,  208  and  209. 


462  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

SALT-MAKING. 

Foster  claims  as  one  of  the  distinctions  between  "Mound 
Builders"  and  'Indians"  that  the  former  understood  the  manufac- 
ture of  salt,  whereas  the  latter  were  ignorant  of  it.  He  probably 
overlooked  references  to  its  use  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 

"  The  Knight  of  Elvas  informs  us  that  the  natural  salt  and  the 
sand  with  which  it  was  intermixed  were  thrown  into  baskets  made  for 
the  purpose.  These  were  large  at  the  mouth  and  small  at  the  bottom,  or, 
in  other  words,  funnel-shaped.  Beneath  them — suspended  in  the  air  on 
a  ridge-pole — vessels  were  placed.  Water  was  then  poured  upon  this 
admixture  of  sand  and  salt.  The  drippings  were  strained  and  boiled  on 
the  fire  until  the  water  was  evaporated,  and  the  salt  left  in  the  bottom  of 
the  pots.  *  *  *  To  the  saline  springs  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  the 
natives  constantly  resorted  from  time  immemorial,  and  in  large  num- 
bers, for  the  manufacture  of  this  necessary  seasoning  for  food.  They 
also  obtained  rock  salt  from  natural "  deposits  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  River." — Jones,  45. 

"  De  Soto  found  the  natives  at  the  saline  Springs  of  Tulla,  Arkan- 
sas, making  salt,  which  was  '  made  into  small  cakes,  and  vended  among 
the  other  tribes  for  skins  and  mantles.'" — Thruston,  Tenn.,  82. 

Mrs.  Mary  Ingalls  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Shawnee  Indians  in 
(now)  Montgomery  County,  West  Virginia,  taken  down  the  Kanawha,  to 
the  salt  region,  and  after  a  few  days  spent  in  making  salt,  to  the  Scioto. 

—  Collins,  II,  55. 

At  the  treaty  of  Fort  Wayne,  in  1803,  the  United  States  agreed  to 
give  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees  150  bushels  of  salt  every  year  for  their 
title  to  the  salt  spring  on  Saline  river,  near  Shawneetown.  Pottery 
similar  to  that  at  the  above  spring  has  been  found  in  connection  with 
the  stone  graves  in  the  Cumberland  Valley  C)  ;  and  also  about  the 
salt  lick  near  Ste.  Genevieve,  Missouri,  where  the  Shawnees  and  Del- 
awares lived  for  a  time.  —  B.  E.  12,  696. 

Smith  relates  that  after  Braddock's  defeat  he  was  "  taken  to  an 
Indian  town  on  the  west  branch  of  the  Muskingum,  about  twenty  miles 
above  the  forks,  which  was  called  Tullihas."  From  here  they  went  on 
a  hunt;  and  "then  moved  to  the  buffaloe  lick,  where  we  killed  several 
buffalo,  and  in  their  small  brass  kettles  they  made  about  half  a  bushel 
of  salt.  I  suppose  this  lick  was  about  thirty  or  forty  miles  from  the 
aforesaid  town,  and  somewhere  between  the  Muskingum,  Ohio,  and  Sciota. 
About  the  lick  was  clear,  open  woods,  and  thin,  white-oak  land,  and  at 
that  time  there  were  large  roads  leading  to  the  lick,  like  waggon  roads." 

—  Col.  Smith,  13. 

The  first  white  settlers  on  the  lower  Beaver  river,  in  western 
Pennsylvania,  found  evidences  of  the  manufacture  of  salt  at  the  mouth 
of  Brady's  Run,  a  mile  from  the  Ohio.  It  has  always  been  supposed 
that  this  work  was  done  by  Indians,  as  there  is  no  knowledge  of  salt- 

^  There  is  a  strong  sulphur  spring  at  Nashville. 


Salt-making  by  Indians.  463 

making  ever  having  been  carried  on  there  by  the  whites. —  Thomas 
Wilson. 

"  None  of  these  tribes  upon  the  Great  Plains  use  salt  in  any  way, 
although  it  is  easily  obtained.  I  have  been  unable  to  prevail  on  them 
to  use  it  in  any  quantity  whatever.  This  applies  exclusively  to  those 
tribes  living  entirely  on  meat;  where  they  eat  a  variety  of  vegetable  food 
they  use  a  great  deal  of  salt."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  124,  condensed. 

"  The  use  of  salt  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Europeans  is  like- 
wise claimed  by  the  Indians.  They  trace  the  origin  of  their  acquaintance 
with  this  valuable  condiment,  to  the  observation  of  the  preference  given 
by  elks  to  the  water  from  salt  licks;  having  tasted  it,  they  liked  it,  and 
took  some  to  boil  their  vegetables,  and  having  found  it  palatable,  they 
boiled  down  the  water  in  the  manner  that  they  had  done  the  sap,  and 
thus  obtained  salt."  They  also  "  profess  to  have  been  well  acquainted 
with  the  art  of  making  maple  sugar  previous  to  their  intercourse  with 
the  white  men."  —  Long,  St.  Peter's,  116. 

Thruston  has  been  quoted  before;  but  as  the  remains  of 
middle  Tennessee,  though  differing  somewhat  in  character  from 
those  of  southern  Ohio,  denote  a  stage  of  culture  at  least  equal 
to  that  of  the  Mound  Builders,  it  is  deemed  appropriate  to  give 
here  his  latest  conclusions  in  the  matter.  They  apply  with  the 
same  force  to  our  own  State. 

"  The  conclusions  reached  (often  unwillingly)  as  the  result  of  these 
investigations  in  all  departments  of  research,  historic,  ethnological,  and 
traditional,  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows : 

"  First.  The  progress  made  by  the  ancient  tribes  in  the  direction  of 
civilization  or  semi-civilization  has  been  overestimated.  The  ston^-grave 
race  and  the  builders  of  the  ancient  mounds  and  earthworks  in  Tennessee 
and  probably  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  were  Indians,  North  American 
Indians,  probably  the  ancestors  of  the  Southern  red  or  copper-colored 
Indians  found  by  the  whites  in  this  general  section,  a  race  formerly 
living  under  conditions  of  life  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  more 
nomadic  hunting  tribes  of  Indians,  but  not  differing  from  them  in  the 
essential  characteristics  of  the  Indian  race. 

"  Second.  The  interesting  collection  of  mounds,  earthworks  and 
stone  graves  found  in  Tennessee  and  Southern  Kentucky  are  simply  the 
remains  of  ancient  fortified  towns,  villages  and  settlements,  once  inhab- 
ited by  tribes  of  Indians  more  devoted  to  agriculture  and  more  sta- 
tionary in  their  habits  than  the  hunting  tribes  generally  known  to  the 
whites. 

"  Third.  No  single  implement  or  article  of  manufacture  or  earth- 
work or  defensive  work  has  been  found  among  their  remains  indicating 
intelligence  or  advancement  in  civilization  beyond  that  of  other  Indians 
having  intercourse  with  the  whites  within  the  historic  period. 

"  Fourth.  The  accumulation  of  dense  population  in  favored  locali- 
ties, and  progress  made  toward  civilization,  were  probably  the  results  of 


46-4  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

periods  of  repose  and  quiet  that  enabled  these  tribes  to  collect  in  more 
permanent  habitations,  and  to  pursue  for  a  time  more  peaceful  modes  of 
life  than  some  of  their  neighbors  and  successors. 

"  Fifth.  These  periods  of  peace  and  advancement  were  probably 
suceeded  by  years  of  wars,  invasions,  migrations  or  changes  which  arrested 
the  limited  development  in  the  art  of  peace  and  civilization,  and  left 
the  native  tribes  in  the  status  in  which  they  were  found  by  the  whites. 

"  These  propositions  I  am  satisfied  can  be  successfully  maintained, 
and  will  afford  the  most  reasonable  solution  of  archaeological  problems 
long   in   controversy. 

"  Nothing  has  been  found  in  mound  or  grave  or  elsewhere  in  Ten- 
nessee or  the  Mississippi  Valley,  showing  an  advanced  state  of  civiliza- 
tion or  semi-civilization.  No  article  has  been  found  requiring  in  its 
manufacture  skill  or  intelligence  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  best  repre- 
sentative tribes  of  modern  Indians. 

"  No  antiquarian  or  archaeologist  can  distinguish  the  implements, 
pottery,  pipes  or  inscriptions  of  the  mound  building  people  from  the 
same  general  character  of  articles  manufactured  by  the  more  advanced 
tribes  of  modern  Indians  within  the  historic  period.  *  *  *  Rare  and 
unique  forms  of  stone,  clay,  bone,  shell  and  copper;  mysterious  objects 
whose  exact  uses  we  cannot  always  discover,  beautiful  implements, 
wrought  with  infinite  labor  and  no  little  skill  have  been  found  in  abund- 
ance ;  yet  all  indicate,  or  are  consistent  with,  the  theory  of  a  compara- 
tively rude  and  primitive  state  of  society. 

"  No  prehistoric  implement,  or  article  of  iron,  or  evidence  of  manu- 
factured iron,  has  been  found,  excepting  objects  made  from  the  unmelted 
ores. 

"  No  writing  or  intelligible  inscription  indicating  a  written  language 
or  decipherable  symbol  language,  no  pictograph  or  tablet  or  inscription 
approaching  the  higher  grades  of  hieroglyphic  writing,  no  cloth  or  fabric 
except  of  coarse  or  rude  manufacture,  no  piece  of  masonry  or  stone 
wall,  or  of  architecture  worthy  of  the  name,  or  trace  of  burned  brick 
wall,  has  been  found. 

"Utensils  and  objects  of  well-burned  clay  are  found,  *  *  *  but 
they  indicate  no  knowledge  of  the  potter's  wheel.  They  are  without 
glaze  and  are  but  comparatively  rude  conceptions,  fashioned  by  the  hand. 

"  The  images  or  idols  of  stone  found  are  rude,  and  belong  to  a 
low  grade  of  sculpture. 

"  Indeed,  all  the  infinite  variety  of  articles  and  antiquities  found 
within  the  widely  extended  limits  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  *  *  * 
tell  only  the  same  story  of  primitive  barbaric  life,  the  life  of  the  town, 
village  and  hunting  Indian."  —  Thruston,  376,  et  seq.,  389. 

After  long-  study  of  the  results  of  explorations  extending 
over  a  number  of  years  and  including  nearly  every  state  in  the 
Mississippi  valley,  Professor  Thomas,  in  a  bulletin  issued  by 
the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  ('The  Problem  of  the  Ohio  Mounds")^ 


Abstract  of  Thomas's  ''Problem  of  the  Ohio  Mounds."      465 

presents  the  testimony  connecting  the  Mound  Builders  with  the 
modern  Indians.  A  brief  abstract  follows : 

In  chapter  I,  "The  Historical  Evidence,"  he  proceeds  to 
show  from  the  early  Spanish  and  French  chronicles  that  the  In- 
dians of  the  southern  states  erected  mounds  of  considerable  size 
in  De  Soto's  time.  Also,  from  a  number  of  writers  within  the 
past  century  that  many  different  tribes,  north  and  south,  piled 
mounds  over  their  dead. 

In  chapter  II,  "Similarity  of  the  Arts  and  Customs  of  the 
Mound  Builders  to  those  of  Indians,"  he  makes  the  following 
heads : — 

"  Architecture. — One  of  the  first  circumstances  which  strike  the 
mind  of  the  archaeologist  who  carefully  studies  these  works  as  being 
very  significant,  is  the  entire  absence  in  them  of  architectural  knowledge 
and  skill  approaching  that  exhibited  by  the  ruins  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  or  even  equalling  that  exhibited  by  the  Pueblo  Indians.  *  *  * 
In  all  the  mound  building  area  of  the  United  States  not  the  slightest 
vestige  of  one  [stone  edifice]  attributable  to  the  people  who  erected  the 
earthen  structures  is  to  be  found.  The  inference  is  therefore  irresistible 
that  the  bouses  of  the  mound-builders  were  constructed  of  perishable 
materials  [and  consequently]  in  this  respect  at  least  the  dwellings  of  the 
mound-builders  were  similar  to  those  of  the  Indians."  Furthermore, 
after  comparing  the  results  of  excavations  of  numerous  mounds  with  the 
descriptions  of  Indian  life  by  early  writers,  he  says :  "  Numerous  other 
references  to  the  same  effect  might  be  given,  but  these  are  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  remains  found  in  the  mounds  of  the  south  are  precisely 
what  would  result  from  the  destruction  by  fire  of  the  houses  in  use  by 
the  Indians  when  first  encountered  by  Europeans." 

"  Tribal  divisions.- —  As  the  proofs  that  the  mound-builders  per- 
tained to  various  tribes  often  at  war  with  each  other  are  now  too  numer- 
ous and  strong  to  be  longer  denied,  we  may  see  in  them  evidences  of  a 
social   condition   similar  to   that  of  the   Indians." 

"  Similarity  in  burial  customs. — The  mortuary  customs  of  the  mound 
builders,  as  gleaned  from  an  examination  of  their  burial  mounds,  ancient 
cemeteries,  and  other  depositories  of  their  dead,  present  so  many  strik- 
ing resemblances  to  those  of  the  Indians  when  first  encountered  by  the 
whites,  as  to  leave  little  room  for  doubt  regarding  their  identity."  Various 
methods  of  burial  are  cited  in  evidence ;  for  instance  — 

"  Removal  of  the  Hesh  before  burial. — This  practice  appears  to  have 
been  followed  quite  generally  by  both  Indians  and  mound-builders." 

"Burial  beneath  or  in  d-d'ellings. —  [There  was]  a  custom  among  the 
mound-builders  of  Arkansas  and  Mississippi,  of  burying  in  or  under 
their  dwellings.  *  *  *  It  is  a  well-attested  historical  fact  that  such 
was  also  the  custom  of  southern  Indian  tribes." 

"  Buna!  in  a  sitting  or  squatting  posture. — It  was  a  very  common 
practice  among  the  mound-builders  to  bury  their  dead  in  a  sitting  or 
30 


466  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

squatting  posture.  *  *  *  The  same  custom  was  followed  by  several 
of  the  Indian  tribes."     [This  is  not  the  case  as  regards  Ohio]. 

"  The  use  of  fire  in  burial  ceremonies. — The  evidences  of  this  custom 
are  so  common  in  the  mounds  as  to  lead  to  the  supposition  that  the 
mound-builders  were  in  the  habit  of  offering  human  sacrifices  to  their 
deities.  *  *  *  Among  the  Indians  fire  appears  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  mortuary  ceremonies  in  several  ways." 

"  Similarity  of  their  stone  implements  and  ornaments. — So  precisely 
similar  are  the  articles  of  this  class  that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish 
those  made  by  the  one  people  from  those  made  by  the  other." 

"  Mound  and  Indian  pottery. — The  statement  so  often  made  that 
the  mound  pottery,  especially  that  of  Ohio,  far  excels  that  of  the  Indians 
is  not  justified  by  the  facts." 

In  chapter  III,  "Stone  Graves  and  What  They  Teach,'* 
after  describing  the  different  variations  of  stone  graves  from 
the  ordinary  box  or  coffin  shapes,  and  recounting  the  localities 
in  which  they  are  found,  he  says :  — 

"Taking  all  the  corroborating  facts  together  there  are  reasonable 
grounds  for  concluding  that  graves  of  the  type  now  under  consideration, 
although  found  in  widely  separated  localities,  are  attributable  to  the 
Shawnees  and  their  congeners,  the  Delawares  and  Illinois,  and  that  those 
south  of  the  Ohio  are  due  entirely  to  the  first-named  tribe.  *  *  * 
The  fact  that  in  most  instances  (except  when  due  to  the  Delawares,  who 
are  not  known  to  have  been  mound-builders)  the  graves  are  connected 
with  mounds,  and  in  many  instances  are  in  mounds,  sometimes  in  two, 
three,  and  even  four  tiers  deep,  proves  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  authors 
of  these  graves  were  mound-builders.  [This  evidence]  forms  an  unbroken 
chain  connecting  the  mound-builders  and  historical  Indians  which  no 
sophistry  or  reasoning  can  break."  At  the  bottom  of  one  of  the  mounds 
of  the  Etowah  Group  "  were  found  stone  graves  of  precisely  the  type 
attributable,  when  found  south  of  the  Ohio,  to  the  Shawnees.  *  *  * 
In  these  graves  were  found  the  remarkable  figured  copper  plates  and 
certain  engraved  shells,"  similar  to  those  found  in  the  stone  graves  and 
small  mounds  in  Tennessee  and  Illinois,  as  well  as  in  the  Hopewell  and 
Turner  mounds  of  Ohio. 

In  chapter  IV,  "The  Cherokees  as  Mound-Builders,"  he 
shows  how  the  construction  of  the  mounds  and  the  specimens 
exhumed  from  them,  correspond  with  the  ordinary  methods  of 
living  and  the  personal  possessions  of  Cherokees  as  set  forth 
by  those  among  them  at  an  early  day. 

In  chapter  V,  "The  Cherokees  and  the  Tallegwi,"  Thomas 
makes  of  the  alleged  similarity  in  form  of  the  "  monitor  pipe  " 
characteristic  of  the  Ohio  mounds,  to  that  in  common  use  among 
■the  Cherokees,  a  basis  for  the  assertion  that  the  Cherokees  are 


Abstract  of  Thomas's  ''Problem  of  the  Ohio  Mounds.''      467 

a  remnant  of  the  Mound  Builders.  But  the  fact  is  that  the 
two  types  are  quite  different;  although  there  are  variations  in 
both,  closely  approaching  each  other.  It  is  very  true,  as  he  as- 
serts, "  that  among  the  specimens  obtained  from  various  locali- 
ties can  be  found  every  possible  gradation,  from  the  ancient 
Ohio  type  to  the  modern  form;"  but  the  same  statement  is 
equally  true  of  almost  every  pattern  of  implement  and  ornament 
in  this  region.  If  we  accept  his  conclusion  that  "There  is,  there- 
fore, in  this  peculiar  line  of  art  and  custom  an  unbroken  chain 
connecting  the  mound-builders  of  Ohio  with  the  Indians  of  his- 
toric times,"  we  are  simply  admitting  as  established  a  tribal  re- 
lationship of  the  ancient,  or  prehistoric,  with  the  modern  tribes 
in  any  part  of  the  Mississippi  valley ;  for  relics,  the  most  diverse 
in  appearance  and  probable  use  can  by  such  reasoning  be  assigned 
to  the  same  class.     He  says  further :  — 

"As  pipes  of  this  form  have  never  been  found  in  connection  with 
the  stone  graves,  there  are  just  grounds  for  eliminating  the  Shawnees 
from  the  supposed  authors  of  the  Ohio  works."  There  are  also  "  other 
reasons  for  eliminating  the  Shawnees  and  other  Southern  tribes  from  the 
supposed  authors  of  the  typical  Ohio  works,  *  *  *  but  there  is  noth- 
ing of  the  kind  to  forbid  the  supposition  that  the  [Cherokees]  were  the 
authors  of  some  of  the  Ohio  works." 

In  chapter  V,  also,  Thomas  analyzes  the  Lenape  Legend 
and  compares  it  with  Cherokee  traditions.  'Tt  is  precisely  in 
accordance  with  [these  traditions]  that  we  find  in  the  Kanawha 
valley,  near  the  city  of  Charleston,  a  very  extensive  group  of 
ancient  works."  He  finds  in  the  method  of  mound  construction, 
in  the  forms  of  burial,  and  in  the  enclosures  of  Charleston, 

"beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  the  connecting  link  between  the  typical 
works  of  Ohio  and  those  of  East  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina  ascribed 
to  the  Cherokees.  *  *  *  It  is  at  least  apparent  that  the  ancient  works 
of  the  Kanawha  valley  and  other  parts  of  West  Virginia  are  more  nearly 
related  to  those  of  Ohio  than  to  those  of  any  other  region,  and  hence 
they  may  justly  be  attributed  to  the  same  or  cognate  tribes.  The  gen- 
eral movement,  therefore,  must  have  been  southward  as  indicated,  and 
the  exit  of  the  Ohio  Mound  Builders  was,  in  all  probability,  up  the 
Kanawha  valley  on  the  same  line  that  the  Cherokees  appear  to  have  fol- 
lowed in  reaching  their  historical  locality."  —  Thomas,  Problem. 


Our  lack  of  definite  knowledge  seems  to  be  considered  by 
various  authors  a  valid  excuse  for  filling  libraries  with  theories 


468  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  sentiment.  All  of  them  neglect  to  explain  why  a  great  na- 
tion covering  most  of  the  Mississippi  valley  should  construct 
its  strongest  forts  in  Ohio,  leaving  hundreds  of  miles  exposed 
in  all  directions.  They  also  fail  to  tell  where  a  foe  could  exist 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  conquer  this  great  nation  almost  in  a 
day;    for  we  are  told, 

"  The  final  overthrow  or  expulsion  of  the  Mound  Builders  was  so 
sudden  that  the  mines  of  Lake  Superior  were  abandoned  in  such  haste 
as  to  cause  them  to  leave  their  implements  behind." — McLean,  145. 

The  wonder  seems  less,  however,  when  we  remember  that 
the  '*  implements  "  were  only  bark  buckets ;  shovels  or  paddles, 
troughs  and  bowls,  roughly  hewed  from  wood;  handspikes, 
made  of  saplings ;  and  large  bowlders,  some  with  a  groove 
pecked  around  them.  The  failure  to  carry  such  things  on  their 
flight  to  unknown  regions  may  be  due  to  other  causes  than  neces- 
sity for  rapid  traveling.  It  might  imply  only  the  exercise  of  a 
little  common  sense. 

Some  earlier  writers  arrived  at  conclusions  more  consist- 
ent with  observed  facts. 

"  Ignorant  as  we  are  and  shall  ever  remain  of  the  internal  revolutions,, 
which  may  have  formerly  taken  place  amongst  the  uncivilized  tribes  of 
North  America,  it  is  not  probable  that  we  can  ever  know  by  whom  the 
works  in  question  were  erected.  Should  it  appear,  from  a  review  of  all 
the  facts,  that  they  must  be  ascribed  to  a  populous  and  agricultural 
nation,  we  must,  I  think,  conclude  that  this  was  destroyed  by  a  more 
barbarous  people.  It  appears  at  least  extremely  improbable,  that,  inde- 
pendently of  external  causes,  or  of  some  great  catastrophe,  a  people 
once  become  agricultural  should  take  such  a  retrograde  step,  as  to 
degenerate  again  into  a  hunting  or  savage  state."  —  Gallatin,  149. 

"Their  departure  (if  they  did  depart)  must  have  been  a  matter  of 
necessity.  For  no  people,  in  any  stage  of  civilization,  would  willingly 
have  abandoned  such  a  country.  *  *  *  jf  ^\^Qy  ^^(j  been  made  to 
yield  to  a  more  numerous  and  more  gallant  people,  what  country  had 
received  the  fugitives  and  what  had  become  of  the  conquerers?  *  *  * 
And  why  had  so  large  a  portion  of  country,  so  beautiful  and  inviting,  so 
abounding  in  all  that  is  desirable,  in  the  rudest  as  well  as  the  most 
advanced  state  of  society,  been  left  as  a  haunt  for  the  beasts  of  the  forests, 
or  as  an  occasional  arena  for  distant  tribes  of  savages  to  mingle  in 
mortal  conflict  ?  "  —  Harrison,  222. 

These  questions  are  thus  answered  by  Force :  — 

"  Two  facts  observed  among  the  tribes  found  here  by  the  Europeans 
have  a  bearing  upon  tlie  possibilities  of  this  inquiry.     One  is  the  usage 


As  the  Matter  Stands.  469 

among  them  to  adopt  not  only  individual  captives  into  their  families, 
but  also  to  receive  remnants  of  reduced  tribes  into  their  tribes  or  con- 
federacies *  *  *  The  other  fact  is  that  sedentary  tribes,  when  con- 
quered, retrograded.  The  Hurons,  after  they  were  driven  from  their 
homes  by  the  Five  Nations,  abandoned  the  practice  of  living  in  fortified 
towns.  Even  the  Five  Nations  never  rebuilt  their  palisaded  works  after 
they  were  destroyed  by  the  French.  The  Andastogues  *  *  *  living 
on  the  Susquehanna  in  strongly  fortified  towns,  were  classed  among  the 
partly  cultivated  tribes.  After  a  continued  war  with  the  Five  Nations, 
*  *  *  the  few  survivors,  the  Conestogas  of  Pennsylvania,  lingered 
a  poverty-stricken  clan,  and  disappeared  in  the  next  century.  The 
Natchez  preserved  their  language  after  their  incorporation  into  the 
Creek  Nation,  but  forgot  all  their  other  distinctive  usages. 

"  Hence  it  would  be  in  accordance  with  what  we  know  of  the 
Indians,  if  individual  members  of  the  Mound  Builders  were  adopted  into 
the  tribes  that  succeeded  them,  and  if  some  of  the  remnants  of  the  Mound 
Builder  tribes  survived,  dropping  their  customs  and  industries,  either  as 
separate  clans  or  incorporated  into  the  intruding  tribes."  —  Force,  67. 


CONCLUSIONS 

The  main  questions  concerning  the  great  earthworks  of 
Ohio  remain  unanswered.  We  have  no  data  from  which  can 
he  determined  what  people  built  these  mounds  and  enclosures, 
whence  they  came,  how  long  they  lived  here,  when  or  why  they 
left  or  whether  they  left  at  all,  whether  they  were  exterminated 
hy  other  tribes  or  faded  away  from  natural  causes,  or  what  finally 
became  of  them. 

The  evidence  at  hand  is  scanty,  and  mostly  negative  in  its 
nature,  serving  rather  to  correct  mistakes  than  to  extend  our 
^knowledge.  There  has  been  developed,  however,  a  scientific 
and  systematic  way  of  dealing  with  the  subject,  by  which  false 
impressions  due  to  those  who  have  sought  with  more  zeal  than 
knowledge  to  light  the  way  for  inquliring  minds,  are  being 
gradually  effaced. 

It  is  now  well  known  that  many  tribes  were  builders  of 
mounds  in  quite  recent  times ;  but  none  of  their  remains  are  to 
be  compared  with  those  of  Ohio,  although  many  efiforts  have 
been  made  to  prove  that  to  the  ancestors  of  some  or  other  of 
these  tribes  the  latter  works  are  to  be  ascribed.  Many  other  sim- 
ilarities and  coincidences,  natural  enough  among  unrelated  peo- 
ples who  live  under  practically  the  same  conditions,  have  been 
taken  as  clews  and  followed  into  the  wilderness  of  speculation, 


470  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

where  the  theorist  soon  becomes  bewildered  and  frankly  aban- 
dons his  task,  or  loses  himself  in  a  tangle  of  words. 

In  magnitude  and  intricacy  the  ''geometrical"  enclosures 
and  large  fortifications  of  Ohio  have  no  equals ;  but,  as  a  rule, 
other  remains  are  less  impressive  than  similar  works  occurring 
elsewhere.  Externally  the  ordinary  mounds  present  no  re- 
markable features,  unless  it  be  the  great  size  of  a  few ;  and  in  this 
respect  they  are  surpassed  by  many  in  other  states.  Excepting 
the  Serpent  Mound,  the  few  effigies  are  inferior  in  size  and  in- 
terest to  those  of  the  northwest ;  the  same  is  true  of  the  flat- 
topped  mounds  when  compared  with  the  same  form  farther 
west  and  south.  The  latter  appear  to  have  had  an  origin  inde- 
pendent of  those  in  the  upper  Ohio  valley. 

The  diversity  in  extent,  form,  and  position,  of  enclosures 
in  southern  Ohio  runs  counter  to  the  belief  that  all  are  due  to 
one  race  and  to  one  period.  The  same  doubt  arises  in  regard  to 
mounds  on  hills  and  those  in  river  valleys.  The  structure,  the 
character  and  arrangement  of  contents,  and  the  different  meth- 
ods of  burial,  which  are  so  often  obvious  to  an  investigator, 
strongly  impress  upon  his  mind  the  idea  that  he  is  dealing  with 
the  tangible  labors  of  different  peoples.  The  cairns  and  the 
rude  stone  heaps  point  to  still  a  third  race,  perhaps  nomadic. 

When  possible  descendants  of  the  Mound  Builders  are 
sought  among  known  tribes,  search  seems  narrowed  to  Cherokees 
and  Mandans;  the  former,  because  they  are  apparently  a  com- 
posite of  the  Iroquois  and  some  unknown  race,  preserve  tradi- 
tions of  a  northern  home,  and  built  mounds  in  the  south ;  the 
latter,  becauise  they  differ  much  in  appearance  and  customs 
from  other  Indians,  constructed  heavy  earth  walls,  and  made 
houses  whose  ruins  resemble  small  enclosures  in  Ohio.  Catlin's 
theory  of  their  migration  from  east  of  the  Mississippi,  though 
it  may  never  be  disproved,  is  not  to  be  accepted;  for  it  is  based 
solely  on  the  occurrence  of  mounds  and  enclosures  which  may 
as  well  be  due  to  other,  and  unknown,  people. 

The  theory  of  an  oft'-shoot  or  colony  from  the  far  southwest 
is  even  more  untenable ;  for  while  it  is  possible  that  the  above 
tribes  may  be  descended  from  the  Mound  Builders,  the  Mound 
Builders  themselves  seem  to  have  nothing  in  common  with  either 
the  Aztecs  or  the  Pueblo  Indians  beyond  a  few  small  personal 
possessions  which  can  easily  be  accounted  for  by  the  extensive 


As  the  Matter  Stands.  471 

traffic  of  aborigines.  The  theory  would  never  have  gained  such 
strength  had  Morgan  personally  examined  the  Scioto  valley  en- 
closures before  making  his  "  restoration." 

There  has  not  yet  been  found  in  one  of  the  larger  mounds 
of  Ohio,  under  circumstances  that  put  beyond  question  the  fact 
of  its  being  deposited  by  the  original  builders,  a  single  article 
of  such  pattern  or  material  as  to  prove  incontestably  that  it  was 
obtained  from  Europeans.  Reported  discoveries  of  this  nature 
are  not  authenticated;  and  nothing  less  can  be  accepted  as  pos- 
itive proof  that  the  structure  is  of  a  date  more  recent  than  the 
year  1492.  How  much  earlier  than  this  some  of  them  may 
have  been  erected  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain.  Trees  on  them 
of  the  same  size  as  those  near  by  prove  nothing  except  that  they 
are  older  than  the  forests;  which  is  self-evident,  for  they  could 
not  well  be  built  on  land  covered  with  timber. 

Any  statement,  drawing,  or  description  of  remains  which  at- 
tempts to  show  that  the  Ohio  Mound  Builders  were  a  race 
essentially  different  from,  or  of  a  higher  grade  than  all  other 
native  tribes  of  the  United  States,  or  even  of  the  Ohio  valley,  is 
not  justified  by  any  evidence  so  far  discovered. 

And  the  contrary  assertion  that  they  were  the  ancestors  of 
any  tribes  living  north  of  the  Ohio  river,  of  whom  historical  or 
traditional  knowledge  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  is  equally 
without  proof. 

We  simply  do  not  know  who  they  were. 

But  we  have  abundant  reason  for  asserting  that  in  no  par- 
ticular were  they  superior  to,  or  in  advance  of,  many  of  the  known 
Indian  tribes.  They  hunted  with  the  same  kind  of  weapons. 
They  worked  with  similar  tools.  The  various  positions  in  which 
the  bodies  are  buried,  and  the  character  of  objects  placed  with 
them,  are  in  close  accordance  with  what  is  observed  among  many 
modern  Indians.  They  seem  to  have  been  patient  and  plodding. 
Agriculture  was  crudely  conducted  and  oracticable  only  in  loose 
soil.  They  had  no  appliances  or  conveniences  for  economizing 
time  or  lightening  labor. 

Under  such  conditions  a  dense  population  is  impossible,  even 
among  the  most  peaceful  people,  with  no  quarrelsome  neighbors ; 
intestine  disputes,  or  wars  with  other  tribes,  would  effectually 
prevent  any  appreciable  increase  in  their  numbers,  no  matter  how 
extended  their  boundaries  might  be. 


472  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

But  if  there  was  not  a  word  of  these  vague  traditions ;  if  no 
records  such  as  those  of  the  early  French  and  Spanish  explorers 
were  in  existence;  if  no  accurate  explorations  had  ever  been 
made ;  if,  in  short,  we  had  no  evidence  of  any  sort  save  such  as 
may  be  derived  from  the  superficial  examination  of  Mound 
Builder  remains  alone; — it  would  be  considered  an  unreason- 
able proposition  that  an  intellect  which  could  organize  a  confed- 
eracy such  as  Tecumseh  came  very  near  consummating  among 
indifferent  or  hostile  tribes,  or  a  conspiracy  like  that  of  Pontiac, 
which  almost  wiped  out  of  being  the  settlements  over  a  wide 
territory,  could  not  plan  earthworks  similar,  and  equal,  to  those 
in  the  Ohio  valley.  No  less  invalid  is  it  to  assert  that  a  man  who 
will  chase  a  deer  a  hundred  miles  or  travel  several  times  that 
distance  to  attack  a  foe,  or  that  a  woman  who  will  raise  a  crop 
of  corn,  is  too  lazy  to  assist  in  building  a  mound;  or  to  claim 
that  persons  who  will  maim,  starve,  mutilate  or  otherwise  mal- 
treat themselves,  or  will  destroy  property  representing  months  of 
labor,  on  the  death  of  a  chieftain  or  leader,  would  not  be  at  the 
trouble  to  carry  a  few  yards  of  earth  or  stones,  in  conjunction 
with  other  mourners,  if  inclined  to  show  their  grief  or  respect 
in  that  manner. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


INDIANS. 


False  Beliefs  Regarding  Them.     Home  Life.     Character,  as  Portrayed 
by  Those  Familiar  zvith  Them. 

THE  name  ''Indian,"  as  generally  used  is  not  more  definite 
than  the  term  ''European,"  In  the  earlier  stages  at  which 
they  were  known  to  the  whites,  the  various  tribes,  al- 
though none  of  them  had  passed  the  lower  stage  of  barbarism, 
were  as  diverse  in  their  manner  of  life  as  different  nations  in  the 
old  w^orld.  The  peaceable  jMandans  or  timid  "Ground  House  In- 
dians," and  the  blood-thirsty  Comanches  or  Apaches;  the  ener- 
getic Iroquois  or  restless  Shawnees  or  sun-worshipping  Natchez, 
and  the  stupid  Diggers,  scarcely  more  intelligent  than  beasts ; — 
were  as  unlike  in  their  characteristics  and  dispositions  as  Hol- 
landers and  Turks,  as  Scots  and  Russian  serfs.  Yet,  all  were 
thrown  into  a  single  class,  and  by  common  consent  the  manners 
and  actions  most  reprobated  in  our  code  of  morals  and  behavior 
are  taken  as  the  index  of  their  composite  character.  The  ferocity 
and  implacability  of  enraged  savages  w^ho  know  no  other  methods 
of  redressing  grievances  than  by  the  infliction  of  bodily  pain 
upon  the  objects  of  their  wrath,  have  served  as  a  gauge  for  meas- 
uring the  ethical  and  intellectual  qualifications  of  the  entire  race ; 
while  superficial  study  of  the  life  of  Indian  communities,  by  pre- 
judiced persons  incapable  of  interpreting  Indian  thought  and 
feeling,  has  led  to  equally  erroneous  opinions  regarding  social 
and  domestic  regulations. 

The  conventional  belief  in  regard  to  all  Indians,  in  all  times, 
is  appositely  expressed  in  a  single  unjust,  unfair,  and  in  some 
respects  untruthful  paragraph. 

"They  [the  pioneers]  knew  him  for  what  he  was — filthy,  cruel, 
lecherous  and  faithless.  *  *  *  'pj^g  greatest  Indians,  chiefs  like  Logan 
and  Cornstalk,  who  were  capable  of  deeds  of  the  loftiest  and  most 
sublime    heroism,    were    also    at    times    cruel    monsters    and    good-for- 

(473) 


474  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

nothings.     Their  meaner   followers   had  only   such  virtues   at  belong  to 
the  human  wolf."  —  Roosevelt:  II,  147. 

There  are  two  inconsistencies  in  this  sweeping  accusation; 
first,  a  civiUzed  standard  is  applied  to  an  unciviHzed  race;  sec- 
ondly, in  order  to  make  their  shortcomings  more  apparent,  tribes 
defending  their  homes  from  an  immigration  which,  if  successful, 
must  destroy  them,  are  virtually  abased  from  their  proper  sta- 
tion, poor  as  it  is,  to  that  of  brutish  savages  thus  accurately 
described : — 

"  But  indeed  the  whole  life  of  these  wild,  red  nomads,  the  plumed 
and  painted  horse-Indians  of  the  Great  Plains,  belonged  to  times  primeval. 
It  was  at  once  terrible  and  picturesque,  and  yet  mean  in  its  squalor 
and  laziness.  From  the  Blackfeet  in  the  north  to  the  Comanches  in  the 
south,  they  were  all  alike ;  grim  lords  of  the  war  and  the  chase ;  war- 
riors, gamblers,  hunters,  idlers;  fearless,  ferocious,  treacherous,  in- 
conceivably cruel ;  revengeful  and  fickle ;  foul  and  unclean  in  life  and 
thought ;  disdaining  work,  but  capable  at  times  of  undergoing  unheard-of 
toil  and  hardship,  and  of  braving  every  danger;  doomed  to  live  with 
ever  before  their  eyes  death  in  the  form  of  famine  or  frost,  battle  or 
torture,  and  schooled  to  meet  it,  in  whatever  shape  it  came,  with  fierce 
and  mutterless  fortitude."  —  Roosevelt,  IV,  335. 

The  same  inability  to  perceive  the  relative  values  of  things 
from  an  uncivilized  point  of  view,  to  adjust  his  mental  vision  to 
the  Indian's  perspective,  leads  another  writer  to  say, 

"An  incapacity  for  progress  is  characteristic  of  his  entire  career, 
and  a  mental  inertia  which  no  known  power  in  civilization  can  over- 
come, marks  his  history,  with  but  few  exceptions."  —  Short,  22. 

There  is  an  apparent  foundation  for  these  strictures ;  but  so 
far  as  applied  to  Indians  of  the  Ohio  valley,  they  are  mainly  based 
upon  hasty  and  careless  observations,  in  our  own  day,  of  degraded 
individuals  or  small  bands  who  have  been  contaminated  by  frontier 
"enlightenment."  Despised,  despoiled,  cheated  on  every  hand, 
treated  as  outcasts  by  the  truculent,  as  legitimate  prey  by  rascalty 
agents  and  other  swindlers^  the  native  American  who  still  remains 
within  territory  taken  up  by  the  white  settlers  is  not  undeserving 
of  the  low  opinion  in  which  he  is  held  by  them.  Such  as  contend 
for  their  rights,  manfully  resist  aggression,  resent  imposition,  re- 
fuse to  submit  to  unjust  and  unconscionable  deprivation  of  their 
natural  rights  and  privileges,  are  branded  as  remorseless  savages 
whose  extermination  is  a  righteous  and  lawful  duty.  From  such 
as  are  willing  to  accept  existence  deprived  of  nearly  everything 


Ignorance  Regarding  Indian  Character.  475 

that  makes  existence  desirable,  "models"  are  chosen  by  most  of 
our  writers  whose  statements  and  conclusions  are  received  as 
trustworthy  by  readers  who  have  no  opportunity  to  judge  for 
themselves. 

Men  like  Tecumseh,  Pontiac,  Joseph,  and  a  score  of  others 
whose  names  are  a  part  of  American  history,  could  not  have 
sprung  from  a  degraded  and  bestial  people ;  the  laws  of  heredity 
disprove  such  assumption.  The  history  of  nearly  every  tribe 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  proves  them  to  have  been  a  vigorous 
and  hardy  race,  physically,  and  in  some  cases  mentally. 

There  is  no  record  that  any  Indian,  of  the  eastern  United 
States  at  least,  ever  begged  for  his  life  in  battle  or  captivity ;  or 
that  any  ever  survived  more  than  a  few  months  in  slavery. 

There  is  not  a  large  city  in  any  civilized  part  of  the  world 
where  are  not  congregated  hundreds  and  thousands  of  individuals 
belonging  to  the  foremost  nations,  who  are  as  depraved  and  cruel 
as  the  assumed  "typical  Indian,"  and  who  are  restrained  from 
the  commission  of  innumerable  hideous  crimes  only  by  fear  of 
punishment.  The  same  injustice  would  be  done  in  arraying  these 
ignorant  and  criminal  classes  as  representative  of  our  culture  as 
in  selecting  the  frontier  vagabond  for  a  "type"  of  the  Indian 
race. 

If  a  majority  of  authors  have  falsely  represented  American 
Indians  as  incarnate  devils,  others,  too  sentimental,  have  gone  to 
the  opposite  extreme  and  clothed  them  with  attributes  more 
angelic  than  human ;  while  many  romancers  have  endowed  a  sin- 
gle individual  with  some  of  the  best  traits  of  humanity  along 
with  some  of  the  most  ignoble.  A  few  have  soberly  written  the 
facts. 

Fiske  well  says : — 

"  It  has  long  been  recognized  that  Cooper's  Indians  are  more 
or  less  unreal;  just  such  creatures  never  existed  anywhere.  The  secret 
of  Parkman's  power  is,  that  his  Indians  are  true  to  the  life.  In  his 
pages  Pontiac  is  a  man  of  warm  flesh  and  blood,  as  much  so  as  Mont- 
calm or  Israel  Putnam.  In  reading  Prescott's  account  of  the  conquest  of 
Mexico,  one  feels  himself  in  the  world  of  the  'Arabian  Nights  ' ;  indeed, 
the  author  himself,  in  occasional  comments,  lets  us  see  that  he  is  unable 
to  get  rid  of  just  such  a  feeling.  His  story  moves  on  in  a  region  that 
is  unreal  to  him,  and  therefore  tantalizing  to  the  reader;  his  Montezuma 
is  a  personality  like  none  that  ever  existed  beneath  the  moon.  Prescott 
was  misled  by  the  Spaniards'  inevitable  misconceptions  Qf  the  strange  Aztec 
society  which  they  encountered;  the  Aztecs  in  his  story  are  unreal.     In 


476  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

his  Peruvian  story,  Prescott  made  a  much  truer  picture;  but  he  lacked 
the  ethnological  knowledge  needful  for  coming  into  touch  with  that 
ancient  society."  —  Fiske,   Science,  200-1,   condensed. 


With  the  belief  that  they  will  materially  assist  in  dispersing 
the  fog  which  obscures  the  "Indian  question,"  observations  and 
conclusions  by  men  familiar  with  Indian  character,  either  from 
residence  among  them,  or  through  exceptional  opportunities  for 
acquiring  authentic  information  in  other  ways,  will  form  the  bulk 
of  this  chapter. 

"  There  is  no  subject  that  I  know  of  within  the  scope  and  reach 
of  human  wisdom,  on  which  the  civilized  world  in  this  enlightened  age 
are  more  incorrectly  informed  than  upon  that  of  the  true  manners  and 
customs,  and  moral  condition,  rights  and  abuses,  of  the  North  American 
Indians."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  83. 

"  Books  and  the  readers  of  books,  have  done  much  to  bewilder  and 
perplex  the  study  of  Indian  character.  Fewer  theories  and  more  obser- 
vation, less  fancy  and  more  fact,  might  have  brought  us  to  much 
more  correct  opinions  than  those  which  are  now  current.     The  Indian  is 

*  *     *    much  mere  fully  under  the  influence  of  common-sense  notions 

*  *  *  than  he  passes  for.  If  he  does  not  come  to  the  same  con- 
clusions, on  passing  questions,  as  we  do,  it  is  precisely  because  he  sees 
the  premises  under  widely  different  conditions."  —  Schoolcraft,  69. 

''  It  would  be  unjust  to  form  an  opinion  of  the  original  inhab- 
itants of  this  country,  by  reference  to  their  descendants  of  the  present 
day.  In  the  short  period  of  half  a  century,  they  have  been  so  changed, 
that  scarcely  a  trace  remains  of  what  they  were,  when  their  country 
was  first  entered  by  the  pioneers  of  our  race ;  an  event  which  sealed 
their  destiny."  —  Burnet,  392. 

"  We  have  seen  enough  of  [Indian]  character,  to  be  aware,  that 
very  few  writers  have  done  more  than  theorize,  and  declaim  upon  the 
subject.  Seldom  have  they  brought  to  it  the  only  true  lights — those 
of  observation  and  experience."  —  Flint,  I,  156. 

"  Many  a  man  who  has  been  a  few  weeks  along  the  frontier, 
amongst  the  drunken,  naked  and  beggared  part  of  the  Indian  race,  and 
run  home  and  written  a  book  on  Indians,  has  no  doubt,  often  seen  them 
eat  to  beastly  excess;  and  he  has  also  seen  them  guzzle  whiskey  *  *  * 
and  beg  a  whole  week  to  get  meat  and  whiskey  enough  for  one  feast 
and  one  carouse ;  but  amongst  the  wild  Indians  in  this  country  [the  upper 
Missouri  region]  there  are  no  beggars — no  drunkards — and  every  man 
studies  to  keep  his  body  and  mind  in  healthy  shape  and  condition.  *  *  * 
There  are,  however,  many  *  *  *  occasions  *  *  *  when  they  fast 
for  many  days  in  succession;  and  others  when  they  can  get  nothing  to 
eat;  and  at  such  times  (their  habits  are  such)  they  may  be  seen  to  com- 
mence with  an  enormous  meal."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  123 


Effects  upon  Indians  of  Association  with  Whites.        477 

"  In  the  Indifin  commimities,  where  there  is  no  law  of  the  land  or 
custom  denominating  it  a  vice  to  drink  whiskey,  and  to  get  drunk;  and 
where  the  poor  Indian  meets  whiskey  tendered  to  him  by  white  men, 
whom  he  considers  wiser  than  himself,  and  to  whom  he  naturally  looks 
for  example ;  he  thinks  it  no  harm  to  drink  to  excess,  and  will  lie  drunk 
as  long  as  he  can  raise  the  means  to  pay  for  it.  And  after  his  first  means 
in  his  wild  state,  are  exhausted,  he  becomes  a  beggar  for  whiskey,  and 
begs  until  he  disgusts,  when  the  honest  pioneer  becomes  his  neighbor ;  and 
then,  and  not  before,  gets  the  name  of  the  "  poor,  degraded,  naked,  and 
drunken  Indian,"  to  whom  the  epithets  are  well  and  truly  applied."  — 
CatHn,  Indians,  II,  251. 

"  An  opinion  which  is  too  current  in  the  world  is,  that  the  Indian 
is  necessarily  a  poor,  drunken,  murderous  wretch.  I  have  traveled  several 
years  already  amongst  these  people  and  I  have  not  had  a  blow  struck  me ; 
nor  had  any  occasion  to  raise  my  hand  against  an  Indian ;  nor  has  my 
property  been  stolen.  That  the  Indians  in  their  native  state  are  'drunken,' 
is  false ;  these  people  manufacture  no  spirituous  liquor  themselves,  and 
knew  nothing  of  it  until  it  was  brought  into  their  country  and  tendered 
to  them  by  Christians.  That  these  people  are  '  naked  '  is  equally  untrue ; 
many  of  them  dress  not  only  with  clothes  comfortable  for  any  latitude, 
but  with  some  considerable  taste  and  elegance.  Nor  am  I  quite  sure  that 
they  are  entitled  to  the  name  of  '  poor  '  where  they  are  all  indulging  in 
the  pleasures  and  amusements  of  a  lifetime  of  idleness  and  ease,  with  no 
business  hours  to  attend  to  or  professions  to  learn."  —  Catlin,  I,  210,  con- 
densed. 

"  Mr.  McCormick,  M.  C.  from  Arizona,  well  said :  '  We  have  In- 
dians [in  Arizona]  that  dififer  as  much  from  each  other  as  Americans  do 
from  Japanese  or  Chinese.  We  have  a  class  of  Indians  whose  tendency 
is  to  civilization.  We  have  a  large  class  whose  tendency  is  to  barbarism.' 
There  is  as  much  difference  between  Pueblo  and  an  Apache,  or  a  Nez 
Perce  and  an  Arapahoe,  as  there  is  between  a  Broadway  merchant  and  a 
Bowery  tough."  —  Dunn,  25. 


Yet,  different  as  they  are,  and  were,  all  confronted  the 
same  problem  of  food  supply.     As  to  the  Plains  Indians, 

*'  It  is  difficult  to  realize  how  severe  was  the  struggle  for  existence  of 
primitive  man  in  America  before  horses  and  guns  were  introduced.  In 
those  days  the  securing  of  daily  food  must  have  been  a  difficult  matter 
for  many  tribes,  and  the  laying  up  of  provision  for  the  future  doubly  hard. 
The  great  beasts,  so  easily  slaughtered  by  the  rifle,  or  even  by  the  iron- 
headed  arrow  shot  into  them  at  close  range  by  a  mounted  man,  must  have 
been  well  nigh  invulnerable  to  the  stone-headed  arrow."  —  Grinnell,  53. 

In  a  land  of  forests  and  streams  conditions  are  easier. 

"  They  are  acquainted  with  a  great  many  herbs  and  roots  of  which 
the   general   part   of   the   English   have   not   the   least   knowledge.     If   an 


•478  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Indian  were  driven  out  into  the  extensive  woods,  with  only  a  knife  and 
tomohawk,  or  a  small  hatchet,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  he  would  fatten, 
even  where  a  wolf  would  starve.  He  could  soon  collect  fire,  by  rubbing 
two  dry  pieces  of  wood  together,  make  a  bark  hut,  earthen  vessels,  and 
a  bow  and  arrows ;  then  kill  wild  game,  fish,  fresh  water  tortoises,  gather 
a  plentiful  variety  of  vegetables,  and  live  in  affluence."  —  Adair,  410. 

"I  saw  about  450  of  the  Shawano  on  a  tedious  ramble  to  the  Mus- 
kohge  country;  they  had  been  straggling  in  the  woods,  for  the  space  of 
four  years,  as  they  assured  me,  yet  in  general  they  were  more  corpulent 
than  the  Chikkasah  who  accompanied  me,  notwithstanding  they  had  lived 
during  that  time,  on  the  wild  products  of  the  American  desarts."  —  Adair, 
410,  condensed. 

"  Judging  from  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  products  of  his  fields, 
from  the  many  ways  of  cooking  his  food,  and  from  the  relatively  elabor- 
ate character  of  the  table  ware  used  in  serving  it,  we  may  safely  say  that 
he  had  reached  a  degree  of  progress  far  in  advance  of  what  we  under- 
stand by  the  term  savage.  Indeed,  in  each  and  every  one  of  these  par- 
ticulars, he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  a  comparison  with  his  white  neigh- 
bor. *  *  *  He  certainly  showed  commendable  foresight  in  his  efforts 
to  guard  against  the  proverbial  rainy  day,  by  curing  and  preserving  his 
surplus  stores  of  game,  fish  and  other  kinds  of  food.  *  *  *  That  these 
supplies  sometimes  fell  short  is,  of  course,  well  known.  The  presence  of 
an  enemy,  or  the  failure  of  his  crop  or  of  his  hunt  might,  any  time,  pre- 
cipitate a  condition  of  scarcity,  such  as  occasionally  occurs  in  the  frontier 
life  of  to-day."  —  Carr,  Food,  188. 

Assertions  of  improvidence,  lack  of  energy,  and  depend- 
ence upon  spontaneous  growth  of  natural  productions  for  sub- 
sistence, are  utterly  without  foundation.  From  New  England 
to  the  upper  Missouri,  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  states, 
corn  was  a  staple  crop,  while  other  vegetables  were  raised  in 
abundance. 

"  The  testimony  is  so  uniform  that  of  the  main  fact  —  the  cultivation 
of  corn  in  greater  or  less  quantities  by  all  the  tribes  living  east  of  the 
Mississippi  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Great  Lakes  —  there  can 
not  be  a  shadow  of  doubt.  All  the  early  writers  agree  upon  the  point, 
and  there  is  no  room  for  a  difference  of  opinion,  except,  perhaps,  in 
regard  to  the  amount  grown.  Upon  this  point,  too,  the  evidence  is  explicit. 
Instead  of  cultivating  it  in  small  patches  as  a  summer  luxury,  it  can  be 
shown,  on  undoubted  authority  that  everywhere,  within  the  limits  named, 
the  Indian  looked  upon  it  as  a  staple  article  of  food,  both  in  summer  and 
winter;  that  he  cultivated  it  in  large  fields,  and  understood  and  appre- 
ciated the  benefits  arising  from  the  use  of,  fertilizers.  Indeed,  such  was 
his  proficiency  and.  industry,  that  even  with  the  rude  and  imperfect  imple- 
ments at  his  disposal,  he  not  only  raised  corn  enough  for  his  own  use, 
but,  as  a  rule,  had  some  to  spare  to  his  needy  neighbors,  both  red  and 
white."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  508. 


The  Indian  as  a  Farmer.  479 

"  That  he  was  a  hunter,  ami  as  such  occupied  a  place  in  the  first,  or 
lowest  stage  of  development  as  we  have  marked  it  out,  is  most  true.  It 
is,  also,  true  that  he  was  something  more,  for  he  was,  in  a  small  way, 
a  farmer  just  like  his  white  neighbor.  Indeed,  so  far  as  the  comforts 
and  conveniences  that  belong  to  this  condition  of  life  are  to  be  regarded 
as  a  measure  of  progress,  he  did  not  materially  differ  from  the  advance 
guard  of  the  band  of  pioneers  that  crossed  the  Alleghanys  and  won  the 
west  to  civilization."  —  Carr,  Food,  190. 

The  Indians  had  at  least  four  different  kinds  of  corn.  "  With  so 
many  kinds,  and  planting  them  at  different  times  during  the  spring  and 
early  summer,  they  not  only  had  successive  crops  which  they  ate  green 
so  long  as  the  summer  lasted,  but  they  also  raised  enough  for  winter  use, 
and  not  infrequently,  had  some  to  spare  to  their  needy  neighbors,  white 
as  well  as  red."  —  Carr,  Food,  160. 

"  Beans  were  sown  in  the  same  hills  with  the  corn ;  and  sometimes 
in  between  the  rows  they  planted  pumpkins  of  different  kinds,  watermel- 
ons and  sunflowers,  though,  generally,  these  latter  were  cultivated  sepa- 
rately in  patches  by  themselves.  This  was  also  true  of  sweet  potatoes 
and  tobacco,  which  were  started  in  beds  specially  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose." —  Carr,  Food,  165. 

In  the  Gulf  States,  De  Soto  ''landed  620  men  and  223  horses," 
besides  a  large  drove  of  hogs.  All  these  were  amply  fed  from  the  natives' 
corn. —  Carr,   Mounds,  526. 

''  We  find  the  Spaniards  under  De  Soto  feeding  almost  exclusively 
on  maize,  and  complaining  of  the  want  of  meat.  Two  hundred  years  later, 
Bernard  Romans  says,  that  nearly  one  half  of  the  Choctaws  have  never 
killed  a  deer  during  their  lives."  —  Gallatin,  108. 

"  They  plant  their  corn  in  straight  rows,  putting  five  or  six  grains 
into  one  hole,  about  two  inches  distant.  They  cover  them  with  clay  in 
the  form  of  a  small  hill.  Each  row  is  a  yard  asunder,  and  in  the  vacant 
ground  they  plant  pumpkins,  watermelons,  marshmallows,  sunflowers,  and 
sundry  sorts  of  beans  and  peas,  the  last  two  of  which  yield  a  large  in- 
crease. They  have  a  great  deal  of  fruit,  and  they  dry  such  kinds  as  will 
bear  jt.  *  *  *  It  is  surprising  to  see  the  great  variety  of  dishes  they 
make  out  of  wild  flesh,  corn,  beans,  peas,  potatoes,  pompions,  dried  fruits, 
herbs  and  roots.  They  can  diversify  their  courses,  as  much  as  the  Eng- 
lish, or  perhaps  the  French  cooks :  and  in  either  of  the  ways  they  dress 
their  food,  it  is  grateful  to  a  wholesome  stomach."  —  Adair,  409. 

"  The  French  had  settled  at  the  Natchez,  without  any  opposition  from 
these  people;  so  far  from  opposing  them,  they  did  them  a  great  deal  of 
service.  *  *  *  Had  it  not  been  for  the  natives,  the  people  must  have 
perished  by  famine  and  distress."  —  Du  Pratz,  I,  58. 

In  the  time  of  La  Salle,  about  1682,  "peach,  plum,  and  apple  trees 
were  found  among  the  tribes  living  near  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas ;  and 
these  same  tribes  are  said  to  have  had  great  quantities  of  domestic  fowls, 
including  flocks  of  turkeys."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  529. 


480  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

In  December,  1780,  "all  the  country  of  the  Overhill  Cherokees  was- 
laid  waste,  a  thousand  cabins  were  burned,  and  fifty  thousand  bushels- 
of  corn  were  destroyed."  —  Roosevelt:  II,  303. 

"  All  the  records  tell  us  that  the  early  colonists  in  New  England, 
Virginia,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  eastern  portion  of  the  United 
States  owed  their  lives  on  more  than  one  occasion,  to  the  timely  supplies 
of  corn  begged,  bought  or  stolen  from  the  natives."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  507. 

Quotes  from  Percy,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims :  —  "It  pleased  God,  after 
a  while,  to  send  these  people  [Powhatan's  Indians]  to  relieve  us  with 
victuals,  as  Bread,  Corne,  Fish,  and  Fleshe  in  great  plenty,  which  was 
the  setting  up  of  our  feeble  men,  otherwise  we  had  all  perished.  Also 
we  were  frequented  by  divers  Kings  in  the  countrie,  bringing  us  store  of 
provision  to  our  great  comfort."  [This  relates  to  the  "starving  time"  in 
Virginia.] — Carr,   Mounds,  523. 

In  1779,  General  Sullivan,  at  the  head  of  the  American  army,  in- 
vaded the  Iroquois  country  and  is  said  to  have  destroyed  160,000  bushels- 
of  corn.  By  the  French  under  Denonville  in  1687  four  villages  of  the 
Senecas  were  burned,  and,  including  the  corn  in  cache  and  what  was 
standing  in  the  fields  1,200,000  bushels  of  grain  were  destroyed.  This 
amount  is  doubtlessly  much  exaggerated,  but  the  troops  were  for  several 
days  engaged  in  cutting  up  the  corn  belonging  to  the  four  villages."  — 
Carr,   Mounds,  513,  et  seq.,  condensed. 

"  The  arts  of  life  among  them  [the  Iroquois]  had  not  emerged  from 
their  primitive  rudeness ;  and  their  coarse  pottery,  their  spear  and  arrow 
heads  of  stone,  were  in  no  way  superior  to  those  of  many  other  tribes. 
*  *  *  In  1696  *  *  *  Count  Frontenac  found  the  maize  fields  ex- 
tending a  league  and  a  half  or  two  leagues  from  their  villages;  and  in 
1779,  the  troops  of  General  Sullivan  were  filled  with  amazement  at  their 
abundant  stores  of  corn,  beans,  and  squashes,  and  old  *  *  *  apple 
orchards."  —  Pontiac  :   I,   16. 

General  Wayne  says  of  the  Maumee  country,  in  1794,  "nor  have  I 
ever  before  beheld  such  immense  fields  of  corn  in  any  part  of  America 
from  Canada  to  Florida."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  533. 

After  the  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  "but  for  the  corn  and  vegetables 
they  [the  soldiers]  obtained  from  the  Indian  towns  which  were  scattered 
thickly  along  the  Maumee  they  would  have  suffered  from  hunger."  — 
Roosevelt,  IV.,  90. 

"  The  old  Indian  town  of  Piqua,  the  ancient  Piqua  of  the  Shawnees, 
and  the  birth-place  of  Tecumseh,  was  situated  on  the  north  side  of  Mad 
River,  about  five  miles  west  of  Springfield.  *  *  *  ^^  ^\^q  \\n\Q.  of  its 
destruction,  Piqua  was  quite  populous.  There  was  a  rude  log  hut  within 
its  limits,  surrounded  by  pickets.  It  was  *  *  *  sacked  and  burnt  on 
the  8th  of  August  (1780).  *  *  >k  All  the  improvements  of  the  Indians, 
including  more  than  two  hundred  acres  of  corn  and  other  vegetables  then 
growing  in  their  fields,  were  laid  waste  and  destroyed." 

On  their  march  toward  Old  Piqua,  the  army  encamped  at  the  Shaw- 
nee town  of  old  Chillicothe,  about  three  miles  north  of  Xenia,  and  twelve 


Condition  of  Indian  Women.  481 

miles  from  Old  Piqua :  "on  the  following  day  they  cut  down  several 
hundred  acres  of  corn." 

**  It  was  estimated  that  at  the  two  Indian  towns,  Chillicothe  and 
Piqua,  more  than  five  hundred  acres  of  corn  were  destroyed,  as  well 
as  every  other  species  of  eatable  vegetable.  In  consequence  of  this,  the 
Indians  were  obliged,  for  the  support  of  their  women  and  children,  to 
employ  their  whole  time  in  hunting." —  Howe:  I,  387,  388,  and  389. 

"  The  Mandanes  and  the  stationary  Minetares  cultivate  the  soil 
and  live  in  villages.  They  have  been  often  quarreling  with  the  Ricaras, 
who  like  them  are  an  agricultural  people."  —  Gallatin,   125,  condensed. 


Another  count  in  the  indictment  against  the  Indian  is  his 
alleged  harsh  treatment  of  women.  Upon  these  presumably  long- 
suffering,  over-burdened  creatures  has  been  expended  a  vast 
amount  of  sympathy  for  which  they  would  be  at  a  loss  to  account 
if  they  could  be  made  to  comprehend  it.  They  are  supposed  to 
undergo  all  the  toil,  drudgery,  privation  and  misery  unavoidably 
attendant  upon  the  manner  of  life  in  which  they  are  compelled 
to  spend  their  dreary,  monotonous  days.  While  the  men  are 
lounging  about  the  wigwams,  gambling,  drinking,  or  recovering 
from  the  effects  of  a  debauch ;  leisurely  smoking  while  reclin- 
ing on  a  grassy  bank ;  fishing  or  hunting  when  they  can  muster 
sufficient  energy  for  the  task ;  indulging  in  the  pleasure  of  a  pre- 
datory foray,  or  otherwise  having  a  general  good  time — the  poor 
"squaws"  must,  so  runs  the  story,  till  the  stubborn  ground,  amid 
roots  and  stumps  or  in  a  tough  sod,  with  rude  implements  of 
wood,  or  horn,  or  bone,  or  stone;  plant,  cultivate  and  gather, 
the  corn,  beans,  and  pumpkins  which  are  to  keep  life  in  their 
half-frozen  bodies  through  the  winter;  cut  up  what  game  may 
be  brought  in  to  them  from  time  to  time,  and  dry  or  smoke  for 
future  use  so  much  of  the  flesh  as  may  not  be  at  once  devoured ; 
daily  spend  hours  in  rubbing  between  two  flat  stones  corn  or 
acorns  to  provide  bread ;  range  through  the  forest  hunting  for 
fallen  timber  which  they  can  drag  home  for  fuel ;  toil  on  their 
knees  day  after  day  dressing  skins  of  animals  to  make  wearing  ap- 
parel or  covers  for  their  miserable  apologies  for  houses ;  act  as 
pack-horses  for  the  transportation  of  their  belongings  when  they 
seek  a  new  home;  and  with  all  this  submit  meekly  and  uncom- 
plainingly to  every  manner  of  contumely,  abuse  and  ill-treatment, 
31 


482  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

But  in  reality,  no  farmer  need  work  so  hard  as  must  a 
hunter  whose  subsistence  depends  upon  the  results  of  the  chase; 
no  Indian  woman  was  ever,  unless  to  escape  impending  danger, 
so  driven  to  exhaustion  as  are  many  poor  white  women,  in  city 
and  country  alike,  on  whom  falls  a  large  part  of  the  task  of 
supporting  a  family.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  on  most  of  the  smaller 
and  many  of  the  larger  farms  in  the  northern  and  western  states, 
and  in  nearly  all  of  our  tenement  houses,  nine-tenths  of  the  white 
women  with  the  average  number  in  family,  have  an  unceasing 
round  from  daylight  until  late  at  night,  winter  and  summer, 
year  after  year,  of  worry  and  planning  and  onerous  physical 
labor  that  not  one-tenth  of  Indian  women,  or  women  of  any 
lower  race,  have,  or  ever  had,  or  would  endure.  They  would 
simply  refuse  to  be  so  imposed  upon. 

"  That  the  Indian  woman  was  not  the  overworked  drudge  she  is 
usually  represented  to  have  been,  has  been  shown  elsewhere  (Mounds  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  Historically  Considered).  Certainly,  if  her  duties 
be  compared  with  those  that  generally  fall  to  the  share  of  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  our  early  pioneers,  her  lot  cannot,  in  any  sense,  be  regarded 
as  exceptionally  hard.  Indeed,  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  it  could  have 
been  so,  since  she  possessed  and  used  the  right  of  divorce  equally  with 
her  husband;  and  it  would  be  too  great  a  tax  upon  our  credulity  to  ask 
tis  to  believe  that  she  would  have  submitted  to  any  very  unequal  distri- 
bution of  the  labor  necessary  to  the  support  of  the  family,  when  she  held 
the  remedy  for  such  injustice  in  her  own  hands."  —  Carr,  Women,  212. 

"  The  duties  and  labors  of  Indian  life  are  believed  to  be  equally, 
and  not,  as  has  been  generally  thought,  unequally  divided  between  the 
male  and  the  female.  *  *  *  It  is  the  duty  of  the  male  to  provide 
food,  and  of  the  female  to  prepare  it.  *  *  *  To  the  man  belongs  not 
only  the  business  of  hunting,  for  this  is  an  employment  and  not  a  pastime, 
but  the  care  of  the  territory,  and  keeping  off  intruders  and  enemies,  and 
the  preparation  of  canoes  for  travel,  and  of  arms  and  implements  of  war. 
*  *  *  To  the  share  of  the  hunter's  wife  [falls]  the  entire  care  and 
control  of  the  lodge.  *  *  *  ]\Iuch  of  the  time  of  an  Indian  female, 
is  passed  in  idleness.  This  is  true  not  only  of  a  part  of  every  day,  but  is 
emphatically  so  of  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  She  has  not  like  the 
farmer's  wife,  her  cows  to  milk,  her  butter  and  cheese  to  make,  and  her 
flax  to  spin.  She  has  not  to  wash  and  comb  and  prepare  her  children  every 
morning  to  go  to  school.  She  has  no  extensive  or  fine  wardrobe  to  take 
care  of.  She  has  no  books  to  read.  *  *  *  When  a  skin  has  been 
dressed,  and  a  garment  made  of  it,  it  is  worn,  till  it  is  worn  out.  *  *  * 
The  laundry  adds  but  little  to  the  cares  of  a  forest  housekeeper.  *  *  * 
Her  husband  is  compelled  by  their  necessities,  to  traverse  large  tracts, 
.and   endure   great   fatigues,    in    all    weathers    in   quest    of   food.     *    *     * 


Condition  of  Indian  Women.  483 

Long  absences  are  often  necessary,  on  these  accounts.  It  is  at  such  times, 
during  the  open  season,   that  the  Indian  female  exerts  her  industry.     * 

*  *  It  is  also  a  part  of  her  duty,  at  all  seasons,  to  provide  fuel  for  the 
lodge  fire.  *  *  *  g^g  takes  a  [small]  hatchet,  and  after  collecting  dry 
limbs  in  the  forest,  she  breaks  them  into  lengths  of  about  18  inches.     * 

*  *  Small  as  these  sticks  are  *  *  *  \^^^  fg^  ^j-g  required  to  boil 
her  pot.  The  lodge,  being  small,  but  little  heat  is  required  to  warm  the 
air,  and  by  suspending  the  pot  by  a  string  from  above,  over  a  small 
blaze,  the  object  is  attained.  *  *  *  Could  the  whole  of  this  physical 
effort  (including  the  cultivation  of  the  soil),  therefore,  be  traced  to  female 
hands,  which  is  doubtful,  for  the  old  men  and  boys  will  often  do  some- 
thing, it  would  not  be  a  very  severe  imposition."  —  Schoolcraft,  74. 

*'  Corn-planting,  and  corn-gathering,  *  *  *  are  left  entirely  to 
the  females  and  children,  and  a  few  superannuated  old  men.  It  is  not 
generally  known,  perhaps,  that  this  labor  is  not  compulsory,  and  that  it 
is  assumed  by  the  females  as  a  just  equivalent,  in  their  view,  for  the 
onerous  and  continuous  labor  of  the  other  sex,  in  providing  meats  and 
skins  for  clothing,  by  the  chase,  and  in  defending  their  villages  against 
their  enemies,  and  keeping  intruders  off  their  territory."  —  School- 
craft, 169. 

Gravier,  writing  of  the  Arkansas  Indians  in  1700,  says,  "the  men 
do  here  what  the  peasants  do  in  France ;  they  cultivate  and  dig  the  earth, 
plant  and  harvest  the  crops,  cut  the  wood  and  bring  it  to  the  cabin,  dress 
the  deer  and  buffalo  skins  when  they  have  any.  They  dress  them  the 
best  of  all  the  Indians  that  I  have  seen.  The  women  do  only  indoor  work, 
make  the   earthen   pots   and   their   clothes."  —  Shea,    134. 

"  The  character  and  Influence  of  women,  among  our  red  men,  have 
been,  and  still  are  greatly  misconceived.  The  females  have  been  often 
represented  as  mere  slaves  of  the  men,  whereas  they  are  not.  Each  sex 
has  appropriate  duties  to  perform,  and  according  to  their  ideas  of  things, 
the  labors  and  pleasures  of  life  are  equitably  divided  between  them."  — 
Atwater,  Indians,  111. 

"'  The  pride  of  the  good  wife  is  in  permitting  her  husband  to  do  noth- 
ing for  himself.  She  *  *  *  does  everything  that  is  to  be  done  *  *  * 
What  she  gets  in  exchange  for  all  this  devotion  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
but  *  *  *  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  a  happier,  more  light-hearted, 
more  contented  woman  cannot  be  found."  —  Dodge,  Indians,  205. 

Along  the  Delaware  "the  men  hunt  and  fish  and  provide  meat  for  the 
household,  keep  their  wives  and  children  in  clothing,  build  and  repair 
the  houses  and  huts,  and  make  fences  around  the  plantations,  occasion- 
ally assisting  in  the  labors  of  the  field  and  garden."  —  Loskiel:  Missions. 
—  Quoted  in  Carr,  Mounds,  522. 

In  nearly  all  the  Indian  tribes  east  of  the  Mississippi  the  men  usually 
assisted  in  the  work  of  raising  maize.  The  Iroquois  are  an  exception ; 
but  what  "with  fighting  the  French  and  Hurons  on  the  north ;  the  Miamis 
and    Illinois   on   the   west ;    the    Cherokees,    Catawbas,    and    Shawnees   on 


484  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

the  south,  to  say  nothing  of  his  immediate  neighbors  in  New  England  on: 
the  east,  it  would  seem  as  if  his  hands  were  so  full  as  to  leave  but  little 
time  for  hunting,  much  less  for  raising  corn."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  513. 

"  Singularly  enough,  too,  the  reason  given  by  the  old  chronicler  why 
the  [Iroquois]  men  took  no  part  in  the  labor,  i.  c,  because  'they  were 
always  at  war  or  hunting,'  is  the  same  that  is  to-day  made  to  do  duty 
in  justifying  the  existence  of  a  similar  condition  of  affairs  among  people 
who  boast  not  a  little  of  their  civilization.  Among  most  of  the  other 
tribes  north  of  the  Ohio  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  Huron  as  well 
as  Algonquin,  the  men  not  only  habitually  cleared  the  ground  —  no  small 
undertaking,  be  it  understood,  in  a  heavily-timbered  region  —  but  they 
frequently  took  part  in  *  *  *  working  the  crop,  and  also  aided  in  the 
labors  of  the  harvest  field.  This  may  not  have  been  a  part  of  their  duty, 
but  we  have  the  authority  of  Charlevoix  for  saying  that  when  asked  to 
aid  in  the  gathering  the  crop  'they  did  not  scorn  to  lend  a  helping  hand.'  " 
—  Carr,  Mounds,  511. 

General  Ely  S.  Parker,  himself  an  educated  Iroquois,  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Carr,  says,  in  part : — 

"  Among  all  the  Indian  tribes,  especially  the  more  powerful  ones, 
the  principle  that  a  man  should  not  demean  himself  or  mar  his  dignity 
by  cultivating  the  soil  or  gathering  its  product  was  most  strongly  in- 
culcated and  enforced.  It  was  taught  that  man's  province  was  war,  hunt- 
ing, and  fishing.  *  *  *  When  any  [vigorous]  man  chose  to  till  the 
earth,  he  was  at  once  ostracised  from  men's  society.  *  *  *  It  is  within 
my  recollection  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  Iroquois  men  did  no 
manual  labor  whatsoever,  because  as  they  argued  it  was  menial  and  be- 
neath their  dignity."  —  Carr,   Mounds,  517. 

Before  we  condemn  the  Iroquois  warrior  for  thus  assert- 
ing his  dignity  at  the  expense  of  his  women,  let  us  reform 
the  white  man  who  from  a  similar  motive — or  a  worse  one — 
compels  his  wife  to  start  the  fire  on  a  cold  morning;  carry  in 
coal ;  or  milk  cows  in  stormy  weather.  Such  culprits  are 
numerous. 

Mary  Jemison  was  taken  captive  in  1775,  when  quite  young,  adopted 
into  the  Seneca  tribe,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  a  long  life  with  them. 
Of  the  women's  work  she  says  "Our  labor  was  not  severe;  and  that  of  one 
year  was  exactly  similar  in  almost  every  respect  to  that  of  the  others, 
without  that  endless  variety  that  is  to  be  observed  in  the  common  labor  of 
the  white  people.  Notwithstanding  the  Indian  women  have  all  the  fuel 
and  bread  to  procure,  and  the  cooking  to  perform,  their  task  is  probably 
not  harder  than  that  of  white  women,  who  have  those  articles  provided 
for  them:  and  their  cares  are  certainly  not  half  as  numerous  nor  as  great. 
In  the  summer  season,  we  planted,  tended,  and  harvested  our  corn,  and 
generally  had  all  our  children  with  us;  but  we  had  no  master  to  oversee 


Condition  of  Indian  Women.  485 

•or  drive  us,  so  that  we  could  work  as  leisurely  as  we  pleased.  *  *  * 
In  order  to  expedite  their  business,  and  at  the  same  time  enjoy  each  other's 
company,  [the  women]  all  work  together  in  one  field,  or  at  whatever  job 
they  may  have  on  hand.  In  the  spring,  they  choose  an  old  active  squaw 
to  be  their  driver  and  overseer,  when  at  labor,  for  the  ensuing  year. 
She  accepts  the  honor,  and  they  consider  themselves  bound  to  obey  her. 

"  When  the  time  for  planting  arrives,  and  the  soil  is  prepared,  the 
squaws  are  assembled  in  the  morning,  and  conducted  into  a  field,  where 
each  plants  one  row.  They  then  go  into  the  next  field  and  plant  once 
across,  and  so  on  till  they  have  gone  through  the  tribe.  If  any  remains  to 
be  planted,  they  again  commence  where  they  did  at  first,  (in  the  same  field) 
and  so  keep  on  till  the  whole  is  finished.  By  this  rule,  they  perform 
their  labor  of  every  kind,  and  every  jealousy  of  one  having  done  more  or 
less  than  another  is  effectually  avoided." 

"  While  the  Indians  were  thus  engaged  in  their  round  of  traditionary 
performances,  with  the  addition  of  hunting,  their  women  attended  to 
agriculture,  their  families,  and  a  few  domestic  concerns  of  small  conse- 
quence, and  attended  with  but  little  labor.''  —  Seaver,  69-70,  and  111. 

"  The  custom  of  reckoning  descent  in  the  female  line,  is  the  only  way 
of  accountmg  for  many  of  their  institutions,  and  notably  for  that  singular 
phase  of  society  in  which  woman  by  virtue  of  her  functions  as  a  wife 
and  mother,  exercised  an  influence  but  little  short  of  despotic,  not  only  in 
the  wigwam  but  also  around  the  council  fire.  Even  among  the  Iroquois, 
her  influence  was  absolutely  paramount.  Chiefs,  warriors  and  councils 
were  all  obliged  to  yield  to  her  demands  when  authoritatively  expressed ; 
the  eloquent  Red  Jacket,  and  that  magnificent  half-breed.  Corn-planter, 
were  constrained  to  do  her  behests  in  the  face  of  their  repeated  declara- 
tions to  the  contrary.  Bear  in  mind  that  among  them  the  gens  or  clan, 
with  its  privileges  and  obligations,  was,  in  reality,  nothing  but  a  brother- 
hood of  individuals  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  blood,  and  it  will  at  once 
be  seen  why  woman  through  whom,  alone,  this  bond  of  union  could  be 
preserved  and  perpetuated,  should  have  been  accorded  a  prominence  which 
can  scarcely  be  paralleled  outside  of  the  realms  of  fable."  —  Carr,  Woman, 
211. 

"  Of  the  cabin  the  wife  was  the  absolute  mistress ;  and  not  only  was 
this  true  of  the  cabin  and  all  that  it  contained,  but  she  seems  also  to 
have  owned  the  fields  and  the  harvests.  In  fact,  we  are  told  that  the 
whole  of  the  land  occupied  by  the  tribe  belonged  to  her.  At  a  council  held 
in  1791  the  women  told  Col.  Proctor,  the  American  Commissioner,  'zee 
■are  the  owners  of  this  land  —  and  it  is  ours.'  This  claim  of  the  women 
was  made  under  the  most  solemn  circumstances,  and  in  the  most  positive 
manner,  and  as  it  was  not  disputed,  we  are  justified  in  inferring  that  it 
was  recognized  as  valid  by  those  who  took  part  in  the  council.  In  another 
instance,  in  conjunction  with  the  warriors,  they  obliged  the  chiefs  to 
re-open  a  council  that  had  been  declared  closed,  and  to  make  a  sale  of 
lands  upon  terms  which  had  been  previously  rejected  by  these  chiefs  — 
■Corn-planter   among   them.     These   two    instances   at   least   justify   us   in 


486  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

concluding  that,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  the  land  belonged  to  the  women.. 
According  to  Morgan  the  title  was  vested  in  all  the  people  of  the  tribe,, 
including  of  course  females  as  well  as  males;  and  of  this  there  cannot  be 
much  doubt  in  view  of  the  many  deeds,  receipts,  and  other  official  docu- 
ments that  have  come  down  to  us,  bearing  the  signatures,  conjointly,  of 
the  principal  women,  the  chiefs,  and  the  leading  warriors."  —  Carr,. 
Women,  216,  condensed. 


It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  Indian  is  frequently  cruel  to 
a  supreme  degree.     But  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 

"  The  cruelty  of  the  Indian  is  inexplicable  except  on  the  hypothesis, 
that  cruelty  is  a  normal  trait  of  humanity.  [It]  is  inborn  and  inbred,, 
and  it  clings  to  him  through  life.  *  *  *  As  a  boy,  his  special  delight 
is  the  torture  of  every  bird  or  animal  he  can  get  hold  of  alive.  As  a  man, 
the  torture  of  a  human  being  gives  him  more  pleasure  than  any  other  act 
of  his  life.  *  *  *  Tht  plains  Indian,  while  not  so  degraded  as  many 
other  tribes  and  peoples  of  this  and  the  older  continent,  is  as  thoroughly 
savage  as  any.  *  *  *  But,  however  savage  he  may  be,  it  is  worth  while 
to  reflect  that  the  ancestors  of  the  most  enlightened  nations  were  at  some 
time  in  the  world's  history  as  savage  as  he  is  now."  —  Dodge,  Plains^ 
416  and  431. 

"  Cruelty  is  a  trait  natural  and  common  to  humanity.  The  savage 
dances  with  delight  at  the  groans  wrung  from  his  enemy  by  physical 
torture;  the  enlightened  gentleman  plunges  a  dagger  of  courteous  words 
into  the  heart  of  his  friend,  and  smiles  blandly  at  his  mental  torture.  I 
know  kindly  disposed  and  estimable  savages,  who  would  tie  their  enemy 
to  the  ground,  and  pleasantly  warm  themselves  by  the  fire  built  on  his. 
naked  breast.  I  know  accomplished  gentlemen  standing  high  in  the  es- 
timation of  society,  who  never  use  an  angry  tone,  yet  whose  wives  have 
cause  to  envy  the  victim  of  the  savage.  Barbarism  torments  the  body; 
civilization  torments  the  soul.  The  savage  remorselessly  takes  your 
scalp,  your  civilized  friend  remorselessly  swindles  you  out  of  your  prop- 
erty. The  progress  of  enlightenment  of  a  people  would  seem  to  be 
measurable  by  *  *  *  the  ingenuity  and  politeness  with  which  mental 
torture  may  be  inflicted.  The  actual  cruelty  's  possibly  about  the  same 
in  either  case."  —  Dodge,  Indians,  533. 

"  As  I  have  in  a  former  place  said,  cruelty  is  one  of  the  leading  traits, 
of  the  Indian's  character ;  and  a  little  familiarity  with  their  modes  of  life 
and  government  will  soon  convince  the  reader,  that  certainty  and  cruelty 
in  punishments  are  requisite  (when  individuals  undertake  to  inflict  the 
penalties  of  the  laws),  in  order  to  secure  the  lives  and  property  of  indi- 
viduals in  society.  In  the  treatment  of  their  prisoners  also,  in  many  tribes. 
*  *  *  cruelties  are  practiced  by  way  of  retaliation  •  *  *  *  ^nd 
these  cruelties  are  practiced  but  upon  the  few  whose  lives  are  required  to- 
atone  for  those  who  have  been  similarly  dealt  with  by  their  enemies,  and' 
that  the  remainder  are  adopted  into  the  tribe.     *     *     *     if  their  punish- 


Indian  Cruelty.  487 

ments  are  certain  and  cruel,  they  have  the  merit  of  being  few,  and 
those  confined  chiefly  to  their  enemies.  It  is  natural  to  be  cruel  to 
enemies.  *  *  *  Jq  ^hgij.  friends,  there  are  no  people  on  earth  that  are 
more  kind."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  II,  240. 

"  There  are  no  people  that  appreciate  kindness  more  than  Indians. 
*  *  *  To  force  an  Indian  into  measures,  is  to  compel  him  to  dis- 
simulation. If  he  thinks  he  is  not  able  to  withstand  your  power,  he  will 
wait  till  he  has  the  vantage  ground.  Then  you  will  feel  the  force  of  the 
revenge  that  has  burned  in  his  soul.  It  will  burst  like  a  volcano,  when 
you  are  at  least  aware  of  it."  —  Finley,  420. 

This  will  explain  much  of  the  apparent  caprice  in  their 
treatment  of  prisoners,  now  adopting  one  with  all  kindness, 
again  putting  one  to  the  most  terrible  torture. 

After  reciting  many  instances  of  outrages  by  whites  upon  the  In- 
dians, Catlin  says :  "  From  these,  and  hundreds  of  others  that  might  be 
named,  and  equally  barbarous,  it  can  easily  be  seen,  that  white  men  may 
well  feel  a  dread  at  every  step  they  take  in  Indian  realms,  after  atrocities 
like  these,  that  call  so  loudly  and  so  justly  for  revenge,  in  a  country  where 
there  are  no  laws  to  punish ;  but  where  the  cruel  savage  takes  vengeance 
in  his  own  way  —  and  white  men  fall,  in  the  Indian's  estimation,  not  as 
murdered   but  executed,  under  the  common  law  of  their  land. 

"  Of  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  such  murders  as  they  are  de- 
nominated by  white  men,  who  are  the  only  ones  to  tell  of  them  to  the 
civilized  world;  it  should  also  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  reader,  who  passes 
his  sentence  on  them,  that  they  are  all  committed  on  Indian  ground  — 
that  the  Indian  hunts  not,  nor  tramps  anywhere  on  white  man's  soil,  nor 
asks  him  for  his  lands  —  or  molests  the  sacred  graves  v/here  they  have 
deposited  the  bones  of  their  fathers,  their  Avives  and  their  little  children.'* 
—  Catlin,  Indians,  II,  254. 

"The  Indians  set  a  high  value  on  life,  and  do  not  willingly  risk  it. 
Warriors  and  chiefs  always  tried  to  keep  those  under  their  command  from 
exposing  themselves,  for  it  was  a  disgrace  for  the  leader  of  a  war  party 
to  lose  any  of  his  men.  It  was  their  polic}'-  to  inflict  the  greatest  possible 
injury  on  the  enemy  with  the  least  possible  risk  to  themselves.  *  *  * 
Their  war  was  one  of  ambuscades  and  surprises,  and  having  been  educated 
to  this  method  of  fighting,  they  were  not  at  all  fitted  to  carry  on  battles 
in  which  there  was  open  and  steady  fighting.  *  *  *  fhe  fact  that  they 
had  been  brought  up  to  fight  on  a  different  principle  from  the  white  man 
has  gained  for  the  Indian  the  reputation  of  being  cowards,  but  in  later 
years  the  warfare  of  more  than  one  tribe  of  plains  Indians  has  demon- 
strated that  when  they  have  learned  the  white  man's  way  of  fighting,  they 
are  as  brave  as  he."  —  Grinnell,  153. 

The  fortitude  with  which  they  endure  sufifering  and  death 
under  torture,  proves  them  endowed  with  at  least  the  physical 
courage  that  scorns  to  shrink  from  pain. 


488  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  personal  misfortunes  and  peculiarities  which  an  Indian  has  in 
life  stick  to  him  beyond  the  grave.  A  one-legged  man  in  life  is  one- 
legged  to  all  eternity.  *  *  *  a  warrior  killed  in  battle  and  not  muti- 
lated, shows,  in  his  future  life,  no  signs  of  wound;  but  if  the  soul  be  not 
annihilated  by  scalping,  every  mutilation  inflicted  on  the  body  after  death, 
also  mutilates  the  soul.  If  the  head,  or  hands,  or  feet  are  cut  off,  or 
the  body  ripped  open  after  death,  the  soul  will  so  appear  and  exist  in  the 
Happy  Hunting  Grounds.  Some  believe  that  if  the  dead  body  is  trans- 
fixed with  arrows  and  left  to  decay,  the  soul  must  always  wear  and  suffer 
from  the  phantasms  of  those  arrows.  *  *  *  if  a  body  so  found, 
pierced  with  many  arrows,  is  unscalped,  it  was  the  vindictive  purpose  of 
the  murderers  forever  to  torment  the  soul."  —  Dodge,   Indians,    180. 

Cruelty,  either  conscious  or  careless,  is,  as  Dodge  remarks, 
an  innate  trait  of  the  human  race.  Like  other  selfish  character- 
istics, it  is  manifested  in  nearly  all  children  and  becomes  subordi- 
nate to  higher  qualities  only  through  the  effect  of  education  and 
example.  A  large  proportion  of  the  population  in  the  most  ad- 
vanced communities  is  not  susceptible  to  good  influences  and 
requires  stringent  laws,  rigidly  enforced,  to  restrain  the  tendency 
toward  wanton  brutality.  Even  reputable  citizens,  individually 
or  as  components  of  a  mob,  seeking  revenge  for  insult  or  injury, 
are  seldom  content  with  only  such  degree  of  punishment  as  the 
offense  warrants ;  almost  invariably  they  inflict  a  measure  of 
acute  physical  suffering  in  addition  to  all  that  justice  could 
demand.  This  peculiarity  of  temper  is  a  survival  of  conditions 
in  times  when  every  man  was  his  own  guardian ;  when  he  who 
could  not  resist  the  encroachment  of  an  aggressor  must  submit  to 
imposition  until  he  found  opportunity  for  freedom ;  when 
strength  developed  into  brutality,  and  weakness  degenerated  into 
hypocrisy  and  meanness,  with  indifference  to  suffering  on  the 
part  of  the  one  and  delight  in  inflicting  it  on  the  part  of  the 
other.  Only  within  a  few  centuries  has  our  own  race  been  par- 
tially emancipated  from  this  stage  of  progress ;  the  disposition 
remains  in  many  who  are  restrained  only  by  fear  of  punish- 
ment; but  while  individuals  may  be  made  to  bear  the  penalty  of 
misdeeds,  nations  guilty  of  acts  of  criminal  aggression  are  safe 
as  long  as  no  stronger  nation  is  put  to  loss  or  inconvenience. 

Nor  is  it  necessary  to  confine  our  search  to  the  criminal  and 
degenerate  elements  of  civilization  in  seeking  for  parallels  to 
the  worst  cases  of  Indian  cruelty.  We  are  not  compelled  to  hunt 
examples  among  the  classes,  which  torture  little  children  to  death 


Cruelty  a  Characteristic  Feature  of  Human  Nature.      489 

for  the  sake  of  collecting  a  small  insurance  on  their  lives.  Quak- 
ers were  hung  and  witches  drowned  in  New  England  by  men 
from  whom  many  of  our  "best  citizens"  are  proud  to  trace  descent. 
The  natives  of  Peru,  Mexico,  and  West  Indies  were  flogged, 
starved  and  butchered  out  of  existence  by  the  nation  which  long 
maintained  the  Inquisition  and  in  the  closing  years  of  the  just 
gone  century  followed  the  same  methods  with  its  own  people.  In 
the  Sepoy  rebellion,  Britons  blew  Hindoos  into  fragments  at 
the  cannon's  mouth,  for  the  reason  that  the  benighted  heathen 
thought  this  destruction  of  the  body  involved  annihilation  of  the 
soul.  The  officials  in  some  southern  states  are  cognizant  of  the 
horrible  torments  of  convict  camps.  The  lumber  camps  of  the 
northwest,  into  which  women  are  decoyed  and  kept  close  prison- 
ers until  relieved  by  insanity  or  death,  have  been  attacked  m  the 
press  time  and  again — and  still  exist.  Criminals,  or  sometimes 
those  against  whom  no  crime  has  been  proven,  are  shot  to  pieces, 
dragged  and  beaten  to  death,  slowly  strangled,  or  burned  at  the 
stake,  by  yelHng  mobs  whose  ranks  contain  ''representative  busi- 
ness men"  and  ''prominent  farmers,"  if  we  are  to  believe  the 
reports.  The  closing  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the 
atrocities  of  European  armies  in  China. 

The  frenzy  of  excitement  and  anger;  the  force  of  sugges- 
tion from  one  mind  to  another;  the  influence  of  example;  the 
principle  of  mutual  support ;  the  intoxication  of  a  desire  to  surpass 
one's  comrade;  the  "insanity  of  a  crowd;"  will  sometimes  con- 
vert a  respectable  soldier  into  a  thief  and  bummer,  or  will  lead  a 
mob  to  excesses  from  the  mere  thought  of  which  many  individuals 
composing  it  would  shrink  with  horror  in  cooler  moments. 

What  leads  to  all  this  ? 

It  is  the  destructive  and  self-protecting  spirit,  essential  to 
the  preservation  of  primitive  man,  carried  on,  latent  or  sup- 
pressed but  never  wholly  extinguished,  into  the  most  advanced 
grades  of  culture,  now  bursting  the  bonds  with  which  it  has  been 
confined  through  all  the  centuries,  and  seeking  the  ancient  manner 
of  expression. 

Among  savage  races,  all  over  the  world,  there  is  no  separate 
title  to  any  property  beyond  what  each  may  carry  about  with  him. 
Land,  food,  goods,  all  are  held  in  common.  Such  community  of 
interest  makes  them  as  one  family,  where  the  affairs  of  each  con- 
cern all  the  others.     A  whole  tribe  is  responsible  for  the  action 


490  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

of  any  member ;  a  crime  or  offense  of  any  kind  committed  by  one,, 
can  be  atoned  by  punishing  another.  All  the  game  that  is  within 
reach  of  a  village  is  needed  for  the  sustenance  of  its  inhabitants ; 
consequently,  strangers  who  come  within  these  limits,  for  hunt- 
ing, are  intruders,  and  in  a  sense  robbers  or  marauders,  who 
must  be  driven  away  or  killed  as  a  matter  of  self-defense. 
Resistance  kindles  anger ;  the  death  of  a  warrior  calls  for  torture 
of  a  captive,  for,  as  said  before,  a  private  avenger  is  never  sat- 
isfied to  stop  at  a  degree  of  punishment  commensurate  with  the 
offense.  Retaliation  follows,  of  course,  where  possible ;  so  that  in 
time  torture  becomes  a  customary  mode  of  execution.  The  cumu- 
lative influences  of  heredity,  custom,  and  instruction,  finally  create 
a  callousness  of  moral  sense  which  feels  no  compunction  at  the 
most  outrageous  transgressions  of  justice,  and  each  vies  with  his 
fellow  in  devising  some  more  efficient  method  of  producing  ex- 
cruciating pain. 

It  was  natural  that  Indians  should  be  more  cruel  to  whites 
than  to  their  own  compeers.  Their  most  desperate  efforts  towards 
retaining  possession  of  their  lands,  availed  them  nothing;  with 
every  war,  every  purchase,  they  found  themselves  crowded  farther 
westward.  In  desperation,  they  destroyed  life  and  property 
wherever  found;  they  gratified  their  vengeance,  and  sought  to 
appease  the  spirits  of  their  slain  warriors,  by  inflicting  on  prisoners 
every  form  of  torment  their  ingenuity  could  invent.  In  conform- 
ity with  their  own  policy  of  government,  they  held  every  white 
person  responsible  for  every  act  of  the  entire  community;  there 
was  no  question  of  discriminating  innocent  from  guilty,  for 
from  their  point  of  view  all  were  guilty  alike  of  every  offense 
committed  against  them.     Some  whites  have  the  same  feeling. 

"  But  it  must  be  confessed  that  these  acts  of  savage  cruelty  were  not 
all  on  the  side  of  the  Indians.  Indeed,  had  the  acts  of  the  pioneers  toward 
the  Indians  always  been  characterized  by  kind  treatment  and  fair  dealing, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  savage  cruelties  inflicted  on  them  would  ever 
have  occurred."  The  author  then  describes  "  one  of  the  most  cruel  and 
tragic  outrages  ever  perpetrated  by  mortal  man,  whether  savage  or  pro- 
fessedly civilized.  This  was  the  butchery  of  the  Moravian  Indians,  by  a 
party  of  whites,  in  1782."  —  Finley,  68. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  backwoodsmen  toward  these  peaceful  and  harm- 
less Christian  Indians  was  utterly  abhorrent."  —  Roosevelt,  II,  146. 

"  The  outrages  of  this  class  of  people  [namely,  those  who  believe 
"an  Indian  has  no  more  soul  than  a  buffalo"]  often  incited  the  savage 
cruelty  of  the  wild  Indians."     A  description  then  follows  of  the  slaughter 


''       Outrages  Committed  by  Whites  against  Indians.        491 

of  the  Andastes,  or  Conestogas,  in  the  jail  at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
where  they  were  locked  up  by  the  authorities  in  a  vain  attempt  at  pro- 
tection.—  Finley,  118. 

Parkman  gives  a  full  account  of  the  murder,  by  a  gang  of  white 
men,  of  these  helpless  and  defenseless  Indians. —  Pontiac,  Chap.  24. 

At  Point  Pleasant,  Cornstalk,  his  son,  and  companions,  were  mur- 
dered by  a  mob  of  soldiers  headed  by  their  captain. —  Roosevelt,  III,  242. 

A  party  of  Arickaras  stole  all  the  horses  of  a  party  led  by  one  of 
Bonneville's  men.  The  latter  captured  two  spies  "  and  declared  that, 
unless  all  the  horses  were  relinquished,  the  prisoners  should  be  burnt  to 
death."  The  Arickaras  refused  to  give  up  all  their  plunder,  though  offer- 
ing a  considerable  part ;  "  the  prisoners  *  *  *  made  a  desperate  effort 
to  escape.  They  partially  succeeded,  but  were  severely  wounded  and 
retaken ;  then  dragged  to  the  blazing  pyre,  and  burnt  to  death  in  the  sight 
of  their  retreating  comrades."  —  Irving,  225. 

Some  of  Bonneville's  men  were  sent  toward  Salt  Lake.  In  this- 
party,  "  one  morning,  a  trapper  of  a  violent  and  savage  character,  dis- 
covering that  his  traps  had  been  carried  off  in  the  night,  took  a  horrid 
oath  to  kill  the  first  Indian  he  should  meet,  innocent  or  guilty.  As  he 
was  returning  with  his  comrades  to  camp,  he  beheld  two  unfortunate 
Diggers,  seated  on  the  river  bank,  fishing.  Advancing  upon  them,  he 
leveled  his  rifle,  shot  one  upon  the  spot,  and  flung  his  bleeding  body 
into  the  stream.  *  *  *  The  only  punishment  this  desperado  met  with 
was  a  rebuke  from  the  leader  of  the  party." 

These  Root  Digger,  or  Shoshokee,  Indians,  "  are  a  simple,  timid,  in- 
offensive race,  unpracticed  in  warfare,  and  scarce  provided  with  any 
weapons,  excepting  for  the  chase."  Nevertheless  the  trappers  feared 
them.  "  One  day  they  came  to  the  banks  of  a  stream  *  *  *  which 
they  were  obliged  to  ford.  Here  a  great  number  of  Shoshokees  were, 
posted  on  the  opposite  bank.  Persuaded  that  they  were  there  with  hostile 
intent,  they  advanced  upon  them,  leveled  their  rifles,  and  killed  twenty-five 
of  them  upon  the  spot.  The  rest  fled  to  a  short  distance,  then  halted  and 
turned  about,  howling  and  whining  like  wolves,  and  uttering  the  most 
piteous  wailings.  The  trappers  chased  them  in  every  direction ;  the  poor 
wretches  made  no  defense,  but  fled  with  terror ;  neither  does  it  appear 
from  the  accounts  of  the  boasted  victors,  that  a  weapon  had  been  wielded 
or  a  weapon  launched  against  them  by  the  Indians  throughout  the  affair." 
—  Irving,  406-7. 

General  Harrison  says:  "I  wish  I  could  say  that  the  Indians  were 
treated  with  justice  and  propriety  on  all  occasions  by  our  citizens;  but 
it  is  far  otherwise.  They  are  often  abused  and  maltreated,  and  it  is  very- 
rare  that  they  obtain  any  satisfaction  for  the  most  unprovoked  wrongs." — 
Finley,  197. 

Their  treatment  by  the  Government  itself,  through  its  author- 
ized agents,  has  been  no  better.  It  is  one  long  record  of  decep- 
tion and  injustice. 


492  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  principal  causes  of  wars  with  the  Indians  are :  — First.  Non-- 
fulfillment of  treaties  by  the  United  States  Government.  Second.  Frauds 
by  the  Indian  agents,  and  Third.  Encroachment  by  the  whites."  — 
Blackmore;  in  Dodge,  Plains,  xli. 

The  Sioux  outbreak  in  1890,  to  state  the  matter  as  briefly  as  pos- 
sible, was  due  to  political  jobbery;  ignorance  of  Indian  character;  restric- 
tion of  the  tribe  to  limited  areas  where  game  was  almost  destroyed ;  stop- 
ping of  supplies,  until  the  Indians  were  half-starved,  sick,  and  shivering 
with  cold ;  inattention  to  treaties ;  and  refusal  or  neglect  upon  the  part 
of  the  Government  to  fulfill  promises  made  in  all  solemnity.  —  Mooney, 
824,  et  seq. 

"  The  Wyandots,  at  Upper  Sandusky  *  *  *  were  making  rapid 
strides  in  civilization,  when  the  policy  of  government  compelled  them 
to  abandon  their  farms,  dispose  of  their  stock  and  other  property,  at  a 
great  sacrifice,  and  migrate  to  the  '  Far  West.'  "  —  Burnet,  386. 

"  Their  [the  Cherokees']  history  shows  that  when  the  improperly 
■directed  power  of  the  white  race  did  not  absolutely  prohibit  their  advance 
in  civilization  some  such  advance  was  always  attained,  and  it  was  always 
resumed  after  interruption  when  possible.  *  *  *  Their  forced  removal 
in  1838  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi  for  a  time  *  *  *  menaced 
their  prosperity ;  yet  five  years  later  their  energy  and  determination  had 
exhibited  renewed  improvements,  which  continued  until  the  war  of  the 
rebellion  brought  to  them  more  desolation  than  to  any  other  community. 
*  *  *  Their  country  became  a  waste,  and  in  the  few  years  of  the  war 
their  numbers  were  reduced  by  at  least  one-third ;  yet  to-day  they  are 
more  prosperous  than  ever  before  and  have  probably  a  greater  population 
than  at  any  time  since  they  have  been  known  to  history."  —  B.  E.  5, 
introduction,  xliii, 

"What  motive  of  ambition  was  there,  to  stimulate  them  to  effort; 
when  they  were  made  to  feel,  that  they  held  their  country  as  tenants 
at  will,  liable  to  be  driven  off  at  the  pleasure  of  their  oppressors?  As 
soon  as  they  were  brought  to  a  situation  in  which  necessity  prompted 
them  to  industry,  and  induced  them  to  begin  to  adopt  our  manners 
and  habits  of  life,  the  covetous  eye  of  the  white  man  was  fixed  on  their 
incipient  improvements,  and  they  received  the  chilling  notice  that  they 
must  look  elsewhere  for  permanent  homes."  [The  charges  made  against 
the  Indians  of  treachery  and  cowardice  are  then  refuted  by  showing  what 
these  alleged  vices  really  are.]  —  Burnet,  388. 

The  Seminole  war  had  its  origin  in  an  act  as  perfidious  and 
dastardly  as  ever  disgraced  a  freebooter.     Osceola 

"  visited  Fort  King,  in  company  with  his  wife  and  a  few  friends, 
for  the  purpose  of  trading.  Mr.  Thompson,  the  agent,  was  present,  and, 
while  engaged  in  business,  the  wife  of  Osceola  was  seized  as  a  slave. 
Evidently  having  negro  blood  in  her  veins,  the  law  pronounced  her  a 
slave ;  and  as  no  other  person  could  show  title  to  her,  the  pirate  who  had 
got  possession  of  her  body,  was  supposed  of  course  to  be  her  owner.. 


A  Defense  of  Spoliation.  493 

"  Osceola  became  frantic  with  rage,  but  was  instantly  seized  and 
placed  in  irons,  while  his  wife  was  hurried  away  to  slave-holding  pollu- 
tion. He  remained  six  days  in  irons,  when,  General  Thompson  says,  he 
became  penitent,  and  was  released. 

"  From  the  moment  when  this  outrage  was  committed,  the  Florida 
War  may  be  regarded  as  commenced.  Osceola  swore  vengeance  upon 
Thompson  and  those  who  assisted  in  the  perpetration  of  this  indignity.'* 
—  Giddings,  98. 

After  seven  years  of  successful  resistance  to  the  United  States 
forces, 

"  Osceola,  Wild  Cat,  and  Micanopy,  the  principal  chiefs  of  the 
Seminoles,  with  a  large  number  of  their  followers,  by  invitation  met 
officers  of  the  American  army  under  a  flag  of  truce,  to  negotiate  for 
peace.  They  were  seized,  while  unsuspicious  of  such  treachery,  and 
imprisoned  at  St.  Augustine."  —  Giddings,  167-170,  condensed. 


No  stronger  vindication  of  the  Government's  policy  in  dis- 
placing the  Indians  has  ever  been  offered  than  the  following, 
written  three-fourths  of  a  century  ago.  Whatever  may  be  thought 
of  the  justice  of  the  argument,  its  logic  is  unassailable.  If  the 
world  is  to  be  run,  as  it  must  and  should  be,  on  the  principle  of 
"the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,"  this  is  certainly  a  case 
where  "the  end  justifies  the  means." 

"  In  the  ancient  states,  in  the  legislative  halls,  on  the  floor  of  con- 
gress, from  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  it  has  been  the  favorite  theme  of 
eloquence,  and  the  readiest  passport  to  estimation  for  philanthropy  and 
benevolence,  to  bring  up  the  guilt  of  having  destroyed  the  past  races  of 
this  people,  and  of  having  possessed  ourselves  of  their  land.  One  would 
think,  it  had  been  discovered,  that  the  population,  the  improvements, 
and  the  social  happiness  of  our  great  political  edifice,  ought  never  to  have 
been  erected  in  the  place  of  these  habitations  of  cruelty.  *  *  *  It  is 
as  unchangeable,  as  the  laws  of  nature,  that  savages  should  give  place 
to  civilized  man.  We  conceive  that  it  is  not  altogether  owing  either  to 
the  proximity  of  the  whites,  to  ardent  spirits,  or  smallpox,  that  the 
Indian  tribes  are  constantly  diminishing. 

"  The  ten  thousand  mounds  in  this  valley,  the  rude  memorials  of  an 
immensely  numerous  former  population,  but  to  our  view  no  more  civ- 
ilized, then  the  present  races,  are  proofs  that  the  country  was  depop- 
ulated, when  white  men  first  became  acquainted  with  it.  If  we  can  infer 
nothing  else  from  the  mounds,  we  can  clearly  infer,  that  this  country 
once  had  its  millions.  Their  places  are  occupied  by  a  race,  who  were 
depopulating  in  their  turn,  when  our  forefathers  first  saw  this  country. 
Who  of  them  owned  the  land,  that  we  now  inhabit?  The  races  that  lie 
buried  and  forgotten  on  these  plains?  or  the  tribes,  that  advanced  to-day, 


494  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

to  dispossess  the  present  occupants,  to  be  dispossessed  in  their  turn  by 
another  race?  We  firmly  believe,  that  all  ideas  of  property  in  the  lands, 
over  which  they  roamed  after  game,  have  been  derived  from  seeing  the 
value,  which  lands  acquire  from  the  occupancy  of  the  whites.  It  is  out 
of  all  question,  that  ages  before  they  had  seen  white  men,  they  were 
divided,  as  now,  into  a  hundred  petty  tribes,  engaged,  as  but  for  the 
interference  of  our  Government  they  would  now  be,  in  endless  and 
exterminating  wars.  If  they  found  the  country,  that  pleased  them,  full  of 
game  and  unoccupied,  they  fixed  themselves  there  peacefully.  If  occupied, 
they  made  upon  the  occupants  a  war  of  extermination.  They  are 
evidently  depopulating,  not  only  in  the  proximity  of  our  people,  but  in 
regions  too  remote,  to  be  affected  by  our  contiguity!"  [The  author  then 
proceeds  to  show  that  the  contrary  is  the  case  among  the  tribes  which 
have  adopted  a  settled  agricultural  life.]  —  Flint,  I,  162,  et  seq.,  condensed. 


"  '  Two  hundred  years  ago  it  required  millions  to  express  in  numbers 
the  Indian  population,  while  at  present  less  than  half  that  number  of  thou- 
sands will  suffice  for  the  purpose.'  This  quotation  from  General  Custer 
is  a  concise  expression  of  the  most  common  and,  perhaps,  the  most 
remarkable  delusion  concerning  the  American  Indians.  It  would  give  a 
population  of  540,000,000  for  two  hundred  years  ago.  Within  the  bounds 
of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  by  Columbus  there  were 
possibly  1.000,000  Indians,  but  more  probably  there  were  only  about  half 
that  number."  —  Dunn,   1,  condensed. 

Even  half  a  million  is  a  very  liberal  estimate,  if  we  may 
rely  upon  the  correctness  of  results  reached  by  those  who  have 
studied  the  matter  thoroughly.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  ab- 
original population  of  the  United  States  was  ever  much,  if  any, 
greater  than  it  is  at  present. 

"  Schoolcraft  says  it  would  take  8,000  acres  of  land  to  support  a  single 
Indian  by  the  chase;  or  40,000  for  a  family  of  five  persons.  The  United 
States  would,  on  this  basis,  support  240,000. —  Dunn,  2. 

Schoolcraft's  estimate  is  absurd.  No  one  man  could  eat 
all  the  rabbits  that  would  attain  maturity  on  8,ooo  acres ;  not 
to  mention  turkeys  and  other  birds,  raccoons,  opossums,  ground- 
hogs, deer  and  bears.  As  to  the  objection  sometimes  urged, 
that  large  carnivorous  animals  would  destroy  most  of  the  smaller 
game,  it  is  plain  that  the  Indian  would  destroy  enough  carnivora 
to  allow  a  sufficient  increase  in  the  game  for  his  own  use ;  or, 
in  a  pinch,  he  would  eat  the  carnivore  itself. 

"  Capt.  Smith,  in  a  voyage  to  this  coast  in  1614,  supposed  that  on 
the    Massachusetts    islands    there    were    about    three    thousand    Indians. 


Number  of  Indians  in  the  Eastern  United  States.        495 

*  *  *  Three  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Plymouth  colony,  a  very 
mortal  sickness,  supposed  to  have  been  the  plague  or  yellow  tever,  raged 
with  great  violence  among  those  in  the  eastern  parts  of  New  England. 
Whole  towns  were  depopulated.  The  living  were  not  able  to  bury  the 
dead;  and  their  bones  were  found  lying  above  ground  many  years  after. 
The  Massachusetts  Indians  are  said  to  have  been  reduced  from  three 
thousand  to  three  hundred  fighting  men."  —  Trumbull,  111. 

The  country  occupied  by  the  Powhatan  confederacy  was  fertile  and 
salubrious;  yet,  in  1669  they  numbered  less  than  3,000. —  Dunn,  4. 

"  At  the  conference  with  the  five  cantons  at  Albany,  in  1677,  the 
number  of  warriors  was  carefully  made  out  at  2,150,  giving  [on  the  basis 
of  five  persons  to  each  able-bodied  man]  a  population  of  10,750,  and  this 
was  the  strength  of  the  [Iroquois]  confederacy  reported  by  an  agent  of 
the  governor  of  Virginia,  who  had  been  specially  despatched  to  the  con- 
ference for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  this  fact."  —  Schoolcraft,  Iroquois,  23. 

"About  the  year  1700,  the  Iroquois  reached  their  culminating  point. 

*  *  *  Having  established  their  dominion  securely  against  all  races  of 
Indian  lineage  *  *  *  ^^ey  would  seem  to  have  prepared  themselves 
for  a  still  higher  progress,  through  the  pursuits  of  peace."  —  Iroquois,  15. 

"  About  the  year  1650,  *  *  *  their  total  population  may  be  safely 
placed  at  25,000."  —  Iroquois,  26. 

"When  we  declared  ourselves  an  Independent  nation  *  *  *  the 
Iroquois     *     *     *     numbered  only  some  ten  or  twelve  thousand  all  told. 

*  *  *  Between  the  Tennessee  and  the  Gulf  the  so-called  Appalachians 
lived.  In  all  they  amounted  to  perhaps  seventy  thousand  souls."  — 
Roosevelt,  I,  49. 

"  An  estimate  by  Colonel  Morgan,  probably  very  accurate,"  shows 
that  in  1778  "  the  number  of  warriors  in  different  tribes,  who  could  at 
any  time  within  a  few  weeks  be  assembled  to  fall  upon  the  frontiers," 
including  all  from  the  Mohawk  to  the  Wabash  and  from  the  Ohio  to 
the  Upper  Lakes,  amounted  to  10,000.—  Hildreth,  129. 

"  During  the  forty  years  intervening  between  Braddock's  defeat  and 
Wayne's  victory,  *  *  *  these  northwestern  tribes  *  *  *  never  at 
any  one  time  had  more  than  three  thousand  warriors  in  the  field,  and 
frequently  not  half  that  number."  —  Roosevelt:  I,  78. 

We  have  assurance  that  this  insignificant  figure  is  not  too 
small;  for 

at  the  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers  the  force  opposed  to  Wayne  was 
made  up  from  "  the  Shawnees,  Delawares,  Wyandots,  Ottawas,  Miamis, 
Pottowattamies,    Chippewas    and    Iroquois."  —  Roosevelt,    IV,    85. 

In  Ohio,  Indian  towns  of  a  thousand  inhabitants  were  rare. 
No  reason  exists  for  supposing  a  different  state  of  affairs  in 
prehistoric  times.  The  conditions  of  life  were  practically  the  same  ; 


496  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and   from   all   indications   they   were   met   in  pretty   much  the 
same  way. 


It  seems  incredible  that  this  sparse  population,  thinly  scat- 
tered over  an  area  now  comprising  all  or  parts  of  eight  large 
states,  could  be  able  to  terrorize  a  frontier  hundreds  of  miles 
in  length  for  more  than  a  generation.  To  berate  such  a  foe 
as  "  cowardly "  or  "  a  mob  of  savages,"  is  no  compliment  to 
the  tardy  victors. 

From  two  considerable  wars,  it  will  be  seen  that  Indians 
possessed  no  small  degree  of  military  skill. 

"  The  forest  tribes  are  exceedingly  formidable  opponents ;  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  they  formed  a  far  more  serious  obstacle  to  the 
American  advance  than  would  have  been  offered  by  an  equal  number  of 
the  best  European  troops.  *  *  *  Their  victories  over  Braddock,  Grant, 
and  St.  Clair  [were]  gained  in  each  case  with  a  smaller  force.  *  *  * 
Almost  all  the  victories,  even  of  the  backwoodsmen,  were  won  against 
inferior  numbers  of  the  Indians."  —  Roosevelt,  II,  372. 

"  At  the  Kanawha  the  Americans  outnumbered  their  foes,  at  King's 
Mountain  they  were  no  more  than  equal ;  yet  in  the  former  battle  they 
suffered  twice  as  much  as  they  did  in  the  latter,  inflicted  much  less 
damage  in  return,  and  did  not  gain  nearly  so  decisive  a  victory."  — 
Roosevelt:  II,  373. 

The  Americans  were  victorious  at  Kanawha  only  because  they 
adopted  Indian  tactics. —  Roosevelt:  III,  233. 

The  following  statements  are  from  reports  of  army  officers 
who  took  part  in  or  were  connected  with  the  war  against  the 
Semlnoles. 

General  Clinch  (p.  182)  — "  1  never  believed,  however,  that  the 
Seminoles  could  have  concentrated  more  than  from  1,200  to  1,500  fighters,, 
including  negroes." 

General  Scott  (p.  441) — "  Of  fighting  men,  including  blacks,  I  do  not 
believe  they  have  more  than  1,200  in  all  Florida,  and  I  am  morally  certain- 
that,  of  that  number,  not  more  than  500  have  been  imbodied  at  any  time 
since  the  commencement  of  hostilities." 

General  Scott  (p.  331)  — "It  is  now  my  opinion  that  the  Seminoles 
cannot  be  promptly  reduced  to  submission  by  a  force  much  short  of 
5,000  men,  and  that  the  greater  part  of  this  force  ought  to  be  mounted." 

Captain  Thruston  (p.  424),  in. command  of  the  right  wing,  reports 
his  force  at  1,9GS  men  and  two  six-pounder  cannon. 

General  Eustis  (p.  427),  commanding  the  left  wing,  began  his  march 
with  1,400  men. 


The  Indian  in  a  Military  Capacity.     Chief  Joseph.       497 

Colonel  Lindsay,  of  the  center  (p.  428),  gives  his  force  as  eleven 
companies  and  one  battalion,  without  stating  the  number. 

General  Jesup,  in  command,  June  5,  1837  (p.  88)  — "This  campaign, 
so  far  as  relates  to  Indian  emigration,  has  entirely  failed.  The  Indians, 
generally,  would  prefer  death  to  removal  from  the  country,  and  nothing 
short  of  extermination  will  free  us  from  them.  Not  a  single  first-rate 
warrior  has  surrendered  since  the  commencement  of  the  war;  nor  has 
a  single  instance  occurred  of  a  Seminole  having  proved  false  to  his 
country."  —  H.  R.,  25 

"  The  Seminole  war  of  1835  to  1842  was  the  most  stubbornly  con- 
tested Of  all  the  Indian  wars,  and,  considering  the  numerical  force  of  the 
tribe,  or  perhaps  even  without  that  qualification,  was  the  most  costly  and 
disastrous  to  the  United  States.  Dwring  the  seven  years  mentioned  nearly 
every  regiment  of  the  regular  army  was  engaged  against  them,  besides 
marines  and  sailors,  and  in  addition,  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  50,000 
militia  and  volunteers.  The  cost  of  the  war  was  $30,000,000  and  over  3,000 
lives.  Of  the  Seminole  probably  not  more  than  400  warriors  were  engaged, 
their  numerical  weakness  being  counter-balanced  by  the  topographic 
character  of  the  country  which  they  defended."  —  B.  E.  5,  introduction, 
xlix. 

One  of  the  foremost  of  American  Indians,  worthy  to  take 
his  place  with  the  greatest  chiefs  of  whom  history  preserves  a 
record,  is  Joseph,  the  Nez  Perce.  Of  magnificent  physique, 
with  a  strong  and  noble  face,  a  keen  and  penetrating  glance, 
he  impresses  one  as  a  man  who  under  favorable  circumstances 
would  have  earned  a  place  among  noted  commanders.  The 
highest  military  qualities  were  displayed  by  him  in  hi^  retreat 
in  1877,  as  so  graphically  described  by  Mooney,  and  also  by 
General  Howard  whose  volume  from  beginning  to  end  reads 
like  one  long  apology. 

A  bare  recital  of  facts  will  establish  his  claim  to  uncommon 
ability. 

"  As  is  generally  the  case  with  Indian  wars,"  the  Nez  Perce  war  of 
1877,  "originated  in  the  unauthorized  intrusion  of  lawless  whites."  The 
Nez  Perces  had  been  removed  to  smaller  reservations  as  whites  encroached 
on  them  from  time  to  time,  in  violation  of  solemn  promises  by  the  Govern- 
ment. Finally,  "while  the  Nez  Perces  were  gathering  up  their  stock  to 
remove  to  the  [last]  reservation  selected,  a  band  of  white  robbers  at- 
tacked them,  ran  off  the  cattle,  and  killed  one  of  the  party  in  charge.'* 
Exasperated  beyond  endurance,  "the  enraged  Nez  Perces  attacked  the 
neighboring  settlement  on  White  Bird  Creek,  Idaho,  and  killed  21  per- 
sons. The  war  was  begun."  In  the  first  three  fights  the  troops  lost  84 
killed  and  wounded.  "Then  began  one  of  the  most  remarkable  exhibi- 
tions of  generalship  in  the  history  of  our  Indian  wars,  a  retreat  worthy  to 
be  remembered  with  that  of  the  storied  ten  thousand.  With  hardly  a, 
32 


498  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

hundred  warriors,  and  impeded  by  more  than  350  helpless  women  and 
children  —  with  General  Howard  behind,  with  Colonel  Miles  in  front,  and 
with  Col.  Sturgis  and  the  Crow  scouts  coming  down  upon  his  flank  — 
Chief  Joseph  led  his  little  band  up  the  Clearwater  and  across  the  moun- 
tains into  Montana,  turning  at  Big  Hole  Pass  long  enough  to  beat  back 
his  pursuers  with  a  loss  of  160  men;  then  on  by  devious  mountain  trails 
southeast  to  Yellowstone  Park,  where  he  again  turned  on  Howard  and 
drove  him  back  with  additional  loss  of  men  and  horses;  then  out  of 
Wyoming  and  north  into  Montana  again,  hoping  to  find  safety  on  Cana- 
dian soil,  until  intercepted  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Yellowstone  by 
Colonel  Sturgis  in  front  with  fresh  troops  and  a  detachment  of  Crow 
scouts,  with  whom  they  sustained  two  more  encounters,  this  time  with  a 
heavy  loss  of  men  and  horses  to  themselves ;  then  again  eluding  their 
pursuers,  this  handful  of  starving  and  worn-out  warriors,  now  reduced  to 
scarcely  fifty  able  men,  carrying  their  wounded  and  their  helpless  families, 
crossed  the  Missouri  and  entered  the  Bearpaw  mountains.  But  new 
enemies  were  on  their  trail,  and  at  last,  when  within  fifty  miles  of  the 
land  of  refuge.  Miles  with  a  fresh  army,  cut  off  their  retreat  by  a  decisive 
blow,  capturing  more  than  half  their  horses,  killing  a  number  of  the  band, 
including  Joseph's  brother  and  the  noted  chief  Looking  Glass,  and  wound- 
ing forty  others. 

"  Forced  either  to  surrender  or  to  abandon  the  helpless  wounded, 
the  women  and  children,  Joseph  chose  to  surrender  to  Colonel  Miles,  * 
*  *  after  a  masterly  retreat  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles.  He  claimed 
that  this  was  a  conditional  surrender,  with  a  distinct  promise  that  he 
should  go  back  to  Idaho  in  the  spring.  *  *  *  Seven  years  passed 
before  the  promise  was  kept,  and  in  the  meantime  the  band  had  been 
reduced  by  disease  and  death  in  Indian  Territory  from  about  450  to 
about  280." 

"  In  all  our  sad  Indian  history  there  is  nothing  to  exceed  in  pa- 
thetic eloquence  the  surrender  speech  of  the  Nez  Perce  chief."  — 
Mooney,  713,  et  seq. 

When  he  found  it  impossible  to  advance,  Joseph  sent  the 
following  message  which  was  taken  verbatim  on  the  spot  by 
Lieutenant  Wood :  — 

"  Tell  General  Howard  I  know  his  heart.  What  he  told  me  before 
1  have  in  my  heart.  I  am  tired  of  fighting.  Our  chiefs  are  killed. 
Looking  Glass  is  dead.  Too-hul-hul-sote  is  dead.  The  old  men  are  all 
dead.  It  is  the  young  men  who  say  yes  or  no.  He  who  led  on  the 
young  men  is  dead.  It  is  cold  and  we  have  no  blankets.  The  little  chil- 
dren are  freezing  to  death.  My  people,  some  of  them,  have  run  away  to 
the  hills,  and  have  no  blankets,  no  food ;  no  one  knows  where  they  are  — 
perhaps  freezing  to  death.  I  want  to  have  time  to  look  for  my  children 
and  see  how  many  of  them  I  can  find.  Maybe  I  shall  find  them  among  the 
dead.  Hear  me,  my  chiefs.  I  am  tired ;  my  heart  is  sick  and  sad.  From 
■where  the  sun  now  stands  I  will  fight  no  more  forever." — Secy.  War,  630. 


The  Tendency  to  Revert  to  Primitive  Habits.  499 


There  is  a  fascination  about  life  in  mountains  and  deep  for- 
ests, on  large  rivers  and  the  great  plains,  that  no  man  after  pro- 
longed experience  can  ever  overcome.  The  hard  labor,  the  ex- 
posure, the  absence  from  home  and  friends,  the  almost  absolute 
certainty  that  if  old  age  outcreeps  death  he  will  eventually  find 
himself  without  means  and  unable  to  work,  have  no  terrors  for 
him.  He  yearns  for  the  free  independent  life,  the  open  air,  direct 
communion  with  the  multitude  of  things  he  does  not  pretend  to 
understand  with  his  mind  but  none  the  less  feels  deeply  in  his 
soul.  Allusion  is  not  made  to  those  who  may  own  large  tracts 
of  land  or  hold  positions  on  river  steamers ;  but  to  humbler 
persons  who  are  forced  to  daily  labor  for  daily  bread.  As  hun- 
ter or  trapper,  as  fisherman  or  raftsman,  as  hermit  or  inmate 
of  a  ''  shanty  boat,"  Nature  claims  him ;  the  dormant  instincts 
of  primeval  life  are  awakened  and  civilization  lose  its  attrac- 
tions for  him.  Almost  invariably  he  deteriorates  ;  he  becomes  in- 
different to  his  manner,  his  appearance,  his  food.  He  is  a  bar- 
barian once  more;  and  if  his  lot  is  cast  among  a  primitive 
race,  he  becomes  as  the  worst  of  them.  No  greater  atrocities 
were  ever  committed  among  savages  or  pirates  than  by  the 
renegade  or  "  the  gentleman  gone  to  seed." 

"  [With]  reference  to  the  white  people,  who  have  been  taken  prisoners 
in  childhood,  and  brought  up  among  the  Indians.  In  every  such  case, 
the  child  of  civilization  has  become  the  ferocious  adult  of  the  forest,  man- 
ifesting all  the  peculiarities,  tastes  and  preferences  of  the  native  Indians." 
—  Burnet,  386. 

It  is  not  always  that  white  men  thus  degenerate ;  often 
they  form  partnerships  and  make  their  homes  deep  in  the  wil- 
derness. Thousands  of  lonely  graves  or  bleaching  skeletons 
mark  the  last  stopping  place  of  those  whose  friends  are  ignorant 
of  their  fate. 

At  the  Mandan  village,  on  the  return  journey,  one  of  the  party  named 
Colter  asked  for  his  discharge  in  order  that  he  might  accompany  two  trap- 
pers up  the  river.  His  request  was  granted.  "  The  example  of  this 
man  shows  how  easily  men  may  be  weaned  from  the  habits  of  a  civiHzed 
life  to  the  ruder  but  scarcely  less  fascinating  manners  of  the  woods.  This 
hunter  had  now  been  absent  many  years  from  the  frontiers,  and  might 
naturally  be  presumed  to  have  some  anxiety,  or  some  curiosity  at  least  to  re- 
turn to  his  friends  and  his  country;  yet  just  at  the  moment  when  he  is  ap- 


500  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

preaching  the  frontiers,  he  is  tempted  by  a  hunting  scheme,  to  give  up> 
those  delightful  prospects,  and  go  back  without  the  least  reluctance  to 
the  solitude  of  the  woods."  —  L.  &  C,  II,  408. 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  a  few  years  of  irksome  study,, 
in  strange,  unpleasant  surroundings,  fail  to  convince  "  wild  In- 
dian "  boys  or  girls  of  the  advantages  of  an  education  that  fits 
them  for  life  in  a  city.  The  hereditary  influences  of  centuries 
are  not  thus  overcome.  A  cat  will  never  learn  to  like  corn  from 
being  stuffed  with  it  continuously. 


It  has  been  shown  that  the  Indian  of  the  central  valley 
was  neither  so  barbarous  nor  so  lazy  as  usually  represented.  It 
remains  to  be  proven  that  morally  and  intellectually  he  is  far 
from  being  as  black  as  he  is  painted. 

"By  nature  they  are  decent  and  modest,  unassuming  and  inoffensive — 
and  all  history  (which  I  could  quote  to  the  end  of  a  volume),  proves  them 
to  have  been  found  friendly  and  hospitable,  on  the  first  approach  of  white 
people  to  their  villages  on  all  parts  of  the  American  Continent  —  and  from 
what  I  have  seen,  (which  I  offer  as  proof  rather  than  what  I  have  read), 
I  am  willing  and  proud  to  add,  for  the  ages  who  are  only  to  read  of 
these  people,  my  testimony  to  that  which  was  given  by  the  immortal  Co- 
lumbus, who  wrote  back  to  his  Royal  Master  and  Mistress,  from  his 
first  position  on  the  new  continent,  '  I  swear  to  your  Majesties,  that  there 
is  not  a  better  people  in  the  world  than  these ;  more  affectionate,  affable, 
or  mild.  They  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves,  and  they  always  speak 
smilingly.'"  —  Catlin,   Indians,   II,  245. 

"  The  Wyandots  were  always  a  humane  and  hospitable  nation.  This 
is  clearly  manifested  in  their  suffering  their  former  enemies  to  settle  on 
their  lands,  when  driven  back  before  the  white  population  *  *  Another 
proof  of  their  humanity  is  their  treatment  of  their  prisoners,  the  most  of 
whom  they  adopted  into  their  families,  and  some  in  the  place  of  their  own 
chiefs  who  had  fallen  in  battle."  —  Finley,  95-6. 

Bonneville  says  of  the  Nez  Perces:  "Their  honesty  is  immaculate, 
and  their  purity  of  purpose,  and  their  observance^  of  the  rites  of  their  re- 
ligion, are  most  uniform  and  remarkable.  They  are  certainly  more  like  a 
nation  of  saints  than  a  horde  of  savages."  —  Irving,  130. 

At  one  time  Captain  Bonneville's  men  met  a  party  of  Nez  Perces,  who 
"  were  on  a  hunting  expedition,  but  had  been  almost  famished  on  the 
march.  They  had  no  provisions  left  but  a  few  dried  salmon,  yet  finding 
the  white  men  equally  in  want,  they  generously  offered  to  share  this 
meagre  pittance,  and  frequently  repeated  the  offer,  with  an  earnestness 
that  left  no  doubt  of  their  sincerity."  —  Irving,  124. 

Later  "  they  were  joined  by  a  party  of  five  families  of  Nez  Perces. 
A  more  forlorn  set  they  had  never  encountered ;  they  had  not  a  morsel  of 


The  Other  Side  of  the  Shield.  601 

-meat  or  fish;  nor  anything  to  subsist  on,  excepting  roots,  wild  rose-buds, 
the  bark  of  certain  plants,  and  other  vegetable  productions;  yet  of  these 
they  furnished  Bonneville's  men  a  supply  from  their  own  store.  A  few 
days  afterwards  four  of  them  went  hunting.  In  the  course  of  four  or  five 
•days  they  returned  laden  with  meat.  The  poor  savages  generously  shared 
with  them  the  spoils  of  their  hunting;  giving  them  food  enough  to  last  for 
several  days. —  Irving,  127,  condensed. 

"  To  each  other  I  have  found  these  people  kind  and  hospitable,  and  en- 
dowed with  every  feeling  of  parental,  of  filial  and  conjugal  affection,  that 
is  met  in  more  enlightened  communities.  I  have  found  them  moral  and 
religious ;  and  I  am  bound  to  give  them  great  credit  for  their  zeal,  which 
is  often  exhibited  in  their  modes  of  worship."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  II,  242. 

Mary  Jemison  says,  "  Nothwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said 
against  the  Indians,  in  consequence  of  their  cruelties  to  their  enemies  — 
cruelties  that  I  have  witnessed  and  had  abundant  proof  of  —  it  is  a  fact 
that  they  are  naturally  kind,  tender,  and  peaceable  toward  their  friends, 
-and  strictly  honest ;  and  that  those  cruelties  have  been  practiced  only  upon 
iheii   enemies  according  to  their  idea  of  justice."  —  Seaver,  73. 

"  I  look  upon  the  Indians  as  the  most  honest  and  honorable  race  of 
people  that  I  have  ever  lived  amongst  in  my  life ;  and  in  their  native  state, 
I  pledge  you  my  honor  they  are  the  last  of  all  the  human  family  to 
pilfer  or  to  steal,  if  you  trust  to  their  honor ;  and  for  this  never-ending 
and  boundless  system  of  theft  and  plunder  and  debauchery  *  *  by 
acquisitive  white  men,  I  consider  [stealing]  a  few  horses,  but  a  lenient 
punishment." —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  46. 

"These  Indians  [the  Seminoles[  are  a  cleanly,  healthful  and  thor- 
'OUghly  peaceful  people.  They  are  a  truth-loving  class ;  liars  among  them 
are  held  in  utter  contempt.  Lewdness  is  an  unknown  sin.  They  seldom 
commit  crime,  and  their  only  punishment  for  it  is  ostracism.  Murder  and 
wife-beating  are  the  worst  of  their  crimes.  Wife-beating  is  not  tolerated. 
The  chief  social  reason  for  their  slow  propagation  is  the  custom  of  count- 
enancing no  marriage  of  persons  who  have  a  drop  of  the  same  blood  in 
their  veins.  The  mothers,  although  intensely  fond  of  their  offsprings,  will 
:allow  them  to  stuff  themselves  with  food  and  indigestible  substances.  If 
the  parents  knew  more  of  diet  the  race  would  rapidly  increase  for  a 
stronger,  sounder  people  are  not  to  be  found  on  the  earth.  The  school 
is  not  largely  attended,  because  of  the  prejudice  among  them  against 
the  government."  —  Brecht,  683,  condensed. 

One  winter  during  Smith's  captivity,  he  was  in  camp  with 
•only  an  old  man  and  a  Uttle  boy,  the  former  too  badly  crippled 
with  rheumatism  to  stir  abroad'.  Smith  had  been  very  unsuccess- 
ful in  hunting  and  the  party  was  in  dire  straits.  On  coming 
in  one  night,  faint  with  hunger  and  fatigue,  the  chief  had  the 
boy  make  a  soup  of  bones  gathered  up  around  the  camp,  all  of 
Avhich  he  gave  to  Smith. 


502  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"He  then  said  he  had  something  of  importance  to  tell  me;  *  *  the 
reason  why  he  had  deferred  his  speech  till  now,  was  because  few  men  are 
in  a  right  humor  to  hear  good  talk,  when  they  are  extremely  hungry,  as. 
they  are  then  generally  fretful  and  discomposed.     *     * 

"  Brother,  I  know  that  you  are  now  afraid  that  we  will  all  perish 
with  hunger,  but  you  have  no  just  reason  to  fear  this. 

"'  Brother,  I  have  been  young,  but  am  now  old — I  have  been  fre- 
quently under  the  like  circumstances  that  we  are  now,  and  that  some  time 
or  other  in  almost  every  year  of  my  life ;  yet,  I  have  hitherto  been  sup- 
ported, and  my  wants  supplied  in  time  of  need. 

"  *  Brother,  Owanyee  some  times  suffers  us  to  be  in  want,  in  order 
to  teach  us  our  dependance  upon  him,  and  to  let  us  know  that  we  are 
to  love  and  serve  him ;  and  likewise  to  know  the  worth  of  the  favors  that 
we  receive,  and  to  make  us  more  thankful. 

"  '  Brother,  Be  assured  that  you  will  be  supplied  with  food,  and  that 
just  in  the  right  time;  *  *  be  strong  and  exert  yourself  like  a  man,, 
and  the  great  spirit  will  direct  your  way.'  " 

The  next  morning  Smith  determined  to  make  an  effort  to 
reach  the  white  settlements;  the  chances  were  all  against  his. 
reaching  them,  but  starvation  was  imminent  where  he  was. 
While  making  his  way  eastward,  he  saw  a  buflfalo,  which  he 
managed  to  kill ;  after  eating,  he  carried  a  load  of  the  meat  back 
to  camp.  In  a  few  pathetic  lines  he  describes  his  remorse  when 
he  contrasts  the  trust  and  gratitude  of  the  old  Indian,  with  his 
own  turpitude  in  deciding  to  abandon  these  two  helpless  per- 
sons in  the  depths  of  winter.  —  Col.  Smith,  89. 


"  Were  any  of  the  American  languages  suitable  for  employment  in 
literary  composition  ?  *  *  i/[j.  Ernest  Renan  *  *  was,  by  implication, 
so  indiscriminately  averse  to  the  native  tongues  of  America  that  Abbe 
Cuoq  felt  himself  called  upon  to  stand  up  in  their  defense.  In  an  able 
pamphlet  he  claimed  for  the  Algonquin  and  Iroquois  languages  all  excel- 
lence that  his  antagonist  attributed  to  the  Aryan  tongues,  while  he  put 
them  far  above  the  Chinese  and  even  those  of  the  Semitic  group.  *  * 
Professor  Whitney  says,  "  '  Of  course  there  are  infinite  possibilities  of 
expressiveness  in  such  structure,  and  it  would  need  only  that  some  native 
American  should  arise  to  fill  it  full  of  thought  and  fancy  and  put  it  to 
the  use  of  a  noble  literature,  and  it  would  be  rightly  admired  as  rich  and 
flexible,  perhaps,  beyond  anything  else  that  the  world  knew.'  But  as  it 
is,  he  considers  it  '  cumbrous  and  time-wasting  in  its  immense  polysyllab- 


Amplitude  of  Indian  Languages.  508 

ism.'  *  *  Professor  Max  Miiller  on  this  as  on  sc.ne  othter  points  is  at 
variance  with  Professor  Whitney.  [To  a  Mohawk  student]  Professor 
Miiller  said  one  day:  'To  my  mind  the  structure  of  such  a  language  as 
the  Mohawk  is  quite  sufficient  evidence  that  those  who  worked  out  such 
a  work  of  art  were  powerful  reasoners  and  acute  classifiers.'  In  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Hale,  Professor  Miiller  has  also  given  the  following  emphatic  tes- 
timony to  the  value  of  the  American  tongues  to  the  philological  student: 
*  It  has  long  been  a  puzzle  to  me  why  this  most  tempting  and  promising 
field  of  philological  research  has  been  allowed  to  be  almost  fallow  in 
America  —  as  if  those  languages  could  not  tell  quite  as  much  of  the 
growth  of  the  human  mind  as  Chinese  or  Hebrew  or  Sanscrit.'  No  one,  I 
think,  need  wait  for  a  more  forcible  incentive  to  the  scientific  study  of  our 
native  American  languages  than  what  we  find  in  this  distinct  avowal  of 
their  worth  from  one  of  the  greatest  philologists  of  our  day.  *  *  The 
judgments  just  quoted  apply  to  the  whole  range  of  American  speech."  — 
Reade,  17. 

"  During  a  long  intercourse  with  various  tribes,  I  have  often  been 
surprised  by  the  noble  style  of  their  thoughts,  and  their  capacity  to  rise 
above  selfishness  and  assume  a  high  heroic  attitude.  It  is  difficult  some- 
times for  the  interpreters  to  follow,  or  understand  these  veins  of  lofty 
thought,  and  to  do  justice  to  the  aboriginal  oratory.  If  these  flights  are 
not  always  sustained,  it  may  be  said  that  they  are  sometimes  so ;  and 
we  must  judge  the  Indian  as  we  do  the  civilized  nations,  by  their  best 
examples.  French  missionaries  to  New  France  were  struck  by  the  bold 
and  manly  bearing  of  the  Indian  sachems,  and  their  ready  powers  of  ora- 
tory. Pere  le  June  remarks,  '  I  think  the  savages,  in  point  of  intellect, 
may  be  placed  in  a  high  rank.  Education  and  instruction  alone  are 
wanting.  The  powers  of  the  mind  operate  with  facility  and  effect.  The 
Indians  I  can  well  compare  to  some  of  our  own  villagers  who  are  left 
without  instruction.  Yet  I  have  scarcely  seen  any  person  who  has  come 
from  France  to  this  country,  who  does  not  acknowledge  that  the  savages 
have  more  intellect  or  capacity  than  most  of  our  own  peasantry.'  Lafitau 
says,  '  They  are  possessed  of  sound  judgment,  lively  imagination,  ready 
conception,  and  wonderful  memory;'  and  that  'they  are  high-minded  and 
proud;  posess  a  courage  equal  to  every  trial;  an  intrepid  valor,  and  the 
most  heroic  constancy  under  torments;  and  an  equanimity  which  neither 
misfortune  nor  reverse  can  shake.' 

"  Lallement  writes:  —  '  I  can  truly  say  that,  in  point  of  intellect,  they 
are  not  at  all  inferior  to  the  natives  of  Europe;  and  had  I  remained  in 
France,  I  could  not  have  believed  that,  without  instruction,  nature  could 
have  produced  such  ready  and  vigorous  eloquence,  or  such  sound  judg- 
ment in  their  affairs,  as  that  which  I  have  so  much  admired  among 
the  Hurons.'  Golden  says:  'I  must  own  that  I  suspect  our  interpreters 
may  not  have  done  justice  to  the  Indian  eloquence.  For  the  Indians, 
having  but  few  words  and  few  complex  ideas,  use  many  metaphors  in 
their  discourses,  which,  interpreted  by  an  unskillful  tongue,  may  appear 


504  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

mean,  and  strike  our  imagination  faintly,  but  under  the  pen  of  skillful  rep- 
resentations, might  strongly  move  our  passions  by  their  lively  images.' 

"  But  their  powers  of  oratory  cannot  be  taken  as  a  measure  of  their 
capacity  for  meeting  the  practical  questions  of  life.  To  think  closely  and 
consecutively,  to  plan  well,  and  to  execute  with  firmness  and  perseverance, 
are  the  characteristics  of  the  human  mind  in  a  high  state  of  civilization.  If 
the  Indian  mind  could  be  taken  apart,  as  a  piece  of  mechanism,  it  would  be 
found  to  be  an  incongruous  and  unwieldy  machine,  which  had  many  parts 
that  did  not  match,  and  which,  if  likened  to  a  watch,  only  ran  by  fits  and 
starts  and  never  gave  the  true  time. 

"  What  are  the  facts  that  the  Indian  mind  has  had  to  guard  against? 
Physical  suffering  of  the  intensest  character !  This  has  made  him  to  ex- 
hibit the  most  hardened  and  stoical  qualities.  Sometimes  deception  of  a 
deep  dye !  This  has  made  him  eminently  suspicious  of  every  one  and 
every  thing,  even  things  without  life ;  for,  being  a  believer  in  necromancy 
and  witchcraft,  he  has  had  to  suspect  all  forms  of  life  and  matter.  Im- 
perturbability, in  all  situations,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  general 
traits  of  Indian  character.  Neither  fear  nor  joy  are  permitted  to  break 
this  trained  equanimity.  The  newest  and  most  ingenious  contrivance 
placed  before  him,  is  not  allowed  to  produce  the  least  expression  of  won- 
der; it  is  deemed  to  be  a  mark  of  timidity  or  cowardice  to  permit  his 
countenance  to  denote  surprise.  Taciturnity  is  a  habit  of  mind  very  con- 
sonant to  the  maxims  and  experience  of  the  hunter  life."  —  School- 
craft,  History,   III,  54-9,  condensed. 

"  They  [the  Indians]  have  exhibited  repeated  proofs  of  intellectual 
powers  apparently  very  superior  to  those  of  the  African,  and  not  very 
inferior  to  those  of  the  European  race.  Father  Le  June  *  *  says  that 
it  was  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  they  were  superior  in  intellect  to  the 
French  peasantry  of  that  time."  —  Gallatin,  156. 

"  Sequoyah,  or  Guess,  a  native  Cherokee,  unacquainted  with  the  En- 
glish language,  saw  books  in  the  missionary  schools,  and  was  informed 
that  the  characters  represented  the  words  of  the  spoken  language.  He 
undertook  to  make  characters  of  his  own  for  the  Cherokee.  In  a  short 
time  he  produced  his  syllabic  alphabet  consisting  of  only  eighty-five  char- 
acters, through  which  he  was  enabled  to  teach  within  three  weeks  every 
Cherokee,  old  or  young,  who  desired  it,  how  to  write  his  own  language. 
It  wanted  but  one  step  more  to  reduce  the  whole  number  of  characters  to 
sixteen,  and  to  have  had  an  alphabet  similar  to  ours.  In  practice,  how- 
ever, and  as  applied  to  his  own  language,  the  superiority  of  Guess's  al- 
phabet is  manifest,  and  has  been  fully  proved  by  experience.  You  must 
indeed  learn  and  remember  eighty-five  characters  instead  of  twenty-five. 
But  this  once  accomplished,  the  education  of  the  pupil  is  completed,  he  can 
read,  and  he  is  perfect  in  his  orthography  without  making  it  the  subject 
of  a  distinct  study.  It  is  true  that  the  original  idea  of  expressing  sounds 
by  characters  was  suggested  to  Guess  by  our  books;  it  must  be  admitted 
that  his  plan  would  have  failed  if  applied  to  perhaps  any  other  language 
than  the  Cherokee ;  and  it  is  doubtful   whether,   in  such  case,  he  would 


Intellectual  Ability  of  Indian  Leaders.  605 

have  ascended  to  the  discovery  of  one  character  for  each  analyzed  sound. 
But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  this  untaught  Indian,  in  what  he  has  per- 
formed, has  exhibited  a  striking  instance  of  the  native  intelligence  of  his 
race."  —  Gallatin,  92,  condensed. 

"  There  were  some  in  each  of  the  tribes  falling  not  one  whit  behind 
the  sharpest  of  the  whites  in  skilled  sagacity  and  calculation,  who  were 
swift  to  mark  and  to  interpret  the  changes  in  the  balance  of  fortune. 
*  *  *  xhe  occupancy  of  this  continent  by  Europeans  would  [no  doubt] 
have  been  indefinitely  deferred  and  delayed  had  all  the  native  tribes  *  *  * 
made  a  bold  and  united  front  to  resist  the  first  intrusion  upon  their  com- 
mon domains.  The  conspiracy  *  *  *  of  Pontiac,  in  1763,  *  *  * 
was  thwarted  only  by  a  resistance  which  engaged  at  several  widely  sev- 
ered points  all  the  warlike  resources  of  the  English."  —  Winsor:  His- 
tory, I,  284. 

Tecumsen,  i^ogan,  Black  Hawk,  Cornstalk,  Red  Jacket, 
Pontiac,  and  scores  of  others,  were  the  intellectual  peers  of  many 
prominent  men  of  today.  Their  lack  of  education  and  their  ig- 
norance along  the  lines  of  knowledge  considered  necessary  in 
civilized  countries  if  a  man  is  to  rise  above  the  ordinary,  only 
bring  into  bolder  relief  their  sagacity  and  good  judgment.  In- 
dividuals of  this  class  are  impossible  in  a  debased  or  degraded 
community;  they  must  have  at  least  a  moderately  intelligent 
ancestry  and  constituency. 

In  putting  a  stop  to  the  butchery  of  Colonel  Dudley's  troops  after 
their  surrender  at  Fort  Meigs,  Tecumseh  proved  himself  a  far  superior 
man  to  Proctor,  the  British  General. —  Finley,  218. 

Pontiac's  conspiracy  included  the  tribes  from  the  Chippewas  of  Min- 
nesota to  the  Six  Nations  of  Central  New  York.  His  plans  involved 
simultaneous  attacks  on  all  the  posts  from  Wisconsin  to  Pennsylvania. 
Had  his  followers  proven  faithful  and  efficient,  he  would  have  succeeded." 
—Finley,  111. 

"  Cornstalk,  the  Shawnee  chief ;  a  far-sighted  seer,  gloomily  con- 
scious of  the  impending  ruin  of  his  race,  a  great  orator,  a  mighty  warrior, 
a  man  who  knew  the  value  of  his  word  and  prized  his  honor,  and  who 
fronted  death  with  quiet,  disdainful  heroism ;  and  yet  a  fierce,  cruel  and 
treacherous  savage  to  those  with  whom  he  was  at  enmity,  a  killer  of 
women  and  children."  —  Roosevelt:  I,  203. 

When  Cornstalk  surrendered  to  Lord  Dunmore  "  he  addressed  the 
white  leader  with  vehement  denunciation  and  reproach  in  a  tone  that 
seemed  rather  that  of  a  conqueror  than  of  one  of  the  conquered.  The 
Virginians  *  *  *  were  greatly  impressed  by  the  chieftain's  eloquence, 
by  his  command  of  words,  his  clear,  distinct  voice,  his  peculiar  emphasis, 
and  his  singularly  grand  and  majestic,  and  yet  graceful  bearing;  they 
afterward  said  that  his  oratory  fully  equalled  that  of  Patrick  Henry 
himself."  — Roosevelt:  III,  235. 


506  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  Logan,  *  *  =)=  ^  j^^j^  Qf  splendid  appearance,  *  *  *  of  com- 
manding dignity,  who  treated  all  men  with  a  grave  courtesy,  loved  for 
his  straightforward  honesty,  and  his  noble  loyalty  to  his  friends."  — 
Roosevelt:  I,  203. 

Short  sketches  given  by  Finley  of  Tecumseh  and  Blackhoof 
(Shawnees),  Little  Turtle  (Miami),  Pontiac  (Ottawa),  and  Keo- 
kuk (Sac),  show  them  to  have  been  the  superiors  of  the  average 
white  man,  even  when  considerable  allowance  is  made  for  the 
bias  of  the  writer. 

"  Their  bravery  has  never  been  questioned,  although  there  was  cer- 
tainly a  considerable  difference  between  the  several  tribes,  in  this  respect. 
With  all  but  the  Wyandots,  flight  in  battle,  when  meeting  with  unex- 
pected resistance,  or  obstacle,  brought  with  it  no  disgrace.  It  was  con- 
sidered rather  as  a  principle  of  tactics.  And  I  think  it  may  be  fairly  con- 
sidered as  having  its  source  in  that  peculiar  temperament  of  mind,  which 
they  often  manifested  of  not  pressing  fortune  under  any  sinister  circum- 
stances, but  patiently  waiting  till  the  chances  of  a  sucessful  issue  appeared 
to  be  favorable.  With  the  Wyandots  it  was  otherwise.  Their  youth 
were  taught  to  consider  anything  that  had  the  appearance  of  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  superiority  of  an  enemy,  as  disgraceful.  In  the  battle 
of  the  Miami  Rapids,  of  thirteen  chiefs  of  that  tribe  who  were  present, 
one  only  survived,   and  he  badly   wounded. 

"  As  it  regards  their  moral  and  intellectual  qualities,  the  differ- 
ence between  the  tribes  is  still  greater.  The  Shawnees,  Delawares 
and  Miamis  were  much  superior  to  the  other  members  of  the  confeder- 
acy. I  have  known  individuals  among  them,  of  a  very  high  order  of 
talents,  but  these  were  not  generally  to  be  relied  upon  for  sincerity. 
The  Little  Turtle,  of  the  Miami  tribe,  was  one  of  this  description, 
as  was  Blue  Jacket,  a  Shawanee  chief.  I  think  it  probable  that  Tecum- 
they  possessed  more  integrity  than  any  other  of  the  chiefs  who  attained 
to  much  distinction;  but  he  violated  a  solemn  engagement,  which  he 
had  freely  contracted,  and  there  are  strong  suspicions  of  his  having 
formed  a  treacherous  design,  which  an  accident  only  prevented  him 
from  accomplishing.  Sinister  instances  are,  however,  to  be  found  in 
the  conduct  of  great  men  in  the  history  of  almost  all  civilized  nations. 
But  these  instances  are  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  number  of 
individuals  of  high  moral  character,  which  were  to  be  found  among 
the  principal,  and  secondary  chiefs,  of  the  four  tribes  above  mentioned. 
This  was  particularly  the  case  with  Tarhe,  or  the  Crane,  the  grand  sachem 
of  the  Wyandots,  and  Black  Hoof,  the  chief  of  the  Shawanees.  Many  in- 
stances might  be  adduced,  to  show  the  possession,  on  the  part  of  these 
men,  of  an  uncommon  degree  of  disinterestedness  and  magnanimity,  and 
strict  performance  of  their  engagements,  under  circumstances  which 
would  be  considered  by  many  as  justifying  evasion.  But  one  of  the 
brightest  parts  of  the  character  of  those  Indians,  is  their  sound  regard  to 
the  obligations  of  friendship.     A  pledge  of  this  kind,  once  given  by  an  In- 


Brave  and  Generous  Foemen.  507 

dian  of  any  character,  becomes  the  ruling  passion  of  his  soul,  to  which 
every  other  is  made  to  yield."  —  Harrison,  237. 

In  the  following  narrative  by  Catlin,  is  recorded  an  instance 
of  bravery  and  chivalry  unsurpassed  by  any  deed  of  a  romantic 
age:  — 

A  party  of  about  150  Shienne  warriors  had  made  an  assault  upon  the 
Mandan  village  at  an  early  hour  in  the  morning.  Ma-to-toh-pa  went  in 
pursuit  with  50  warriors,  all  he  could  muster.  When  they  found  them- 
selves so  outnumbered,  the  Alandans  wished  to  retreat;  but  Mah-to-toh- 
pa  stuck  his  lance  in  the  ground  and  fastened  a  red  sash  to  it,  to  indi- 
cate that  he  would  fight  to  the  death.  The  Shiennes,  meantime,  were 
prepared  for  battle;  the  chief  admiring  the  bravery  of  Mah-to-toh-pa, 
offered  single  combat,  their  followers  to  remain  neutral.  The  Shienne 
chief  then  stuck  his  lance  in  the  ground  by  the  side  of  the  other. 

"  The  two  parties  then  drew  nearer,  on  the  beautiful  prairie,  and  the 
two  full-plumed  chiefs,  at  full  speed,  drove  furiously  upon  each  other, 
both  firing  their  guns  at  the  same  moment.  They  passed  upon  each  other 
a  little  distance  and  wheeled,  when  Mah-to-toh-pa  drew  off  his  powder- 
horn,  and  by  holding  it  up,  showed  his  adversary  that  the  bullet  had  shat- 
tered it  to  pieces  and  destroyed  his  ammunition ;  he  then  threw  it  from 
him,  and -his  gun  also  —  drew  his  bow  from  his  quiver,  and  an  arrow, 
and  his  shield  upon  his  left  arm !  The  Shienne  instantly  did  the  same ; 
his  horn  was  thrown  off,  and  his  gun  was  thrown  into  the  air  —  his 
shield  was  balanced  on  his  arm  —  his  bow  drawn,  and  quick  as  light- 
ning, they  were  both  on  the  wing  for  a  deadly  combat !  Like  two  soaring 
eagles  in  the  open  air,  they  made  their  circuits  around,  and  the  twangs  of 
their  sinewy  bows  were  heard,  and  the  war-whoop,  as  they  dashed  by  each 
other,  parrying  off  the  whizzing  arrows  with  their  shields !  Some  lodged 
in  their  legs  and  others  in  their  arms ;  but  both  protected  their  bodies  with 
their  bucklers  of  bull's  hide.  Deadly  and  many  were  the  shafts  that  fled 
from  their  murderous  bows.  At  length  the  horse  of  Mah-to-toh-pa  fell  ta 
the  ground  with  an  arrow  in  his  heart;  his  rider  sprang  upon  his  feet 
prepared  to  renew  the  combat;  but  the  Shienne,  seeing  his  adversary  dis- 
mount, sprang  from  his  horse,  and  driving  him  back,  presented  the  face 
of  his  shield  toward  his  enemy,  inviting  him  to  come  on !  —  a  few  shots 
more  were  exchanged  thus,  when  the  Shienne,  having  discharged  all  his  ar- 
rows, held  up  his  empty  quiver  and  dashing  it  furiously  to  the  ground, 
with  his  bow  and  shield,  drew  and  brandished  his  naked  knife 

"  *  Yes ! '  said  Mah-to-toh-pa,  as  he  threw  his  shield  and  quiver  to  the 
earth,  and  was  rushing  up  —  he  grasped  for  his  knife,  but  his  belt  had  it 
not ;  he  had  left  it  at  home  !  His  bow  was  in  his  hand,  with  which  he  par- 
ried his  antagonist's  blow  and  felled  him  to  the  ground !  A  desperate 
struggle  now  ensued  for  the  knife  —  the  blade  of  it  was  several  times 
drawn  through  the  right  hand  of  Mah-to-toh-pa,  inflicting  the  most  fright- 
ful wounds,  while  he  was  severely  wounded  in  several  parts  of  the  body. 


508 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


He  at  length  succeeded  however,  in  wresting  it  from  his  adversary's  hand, 
and  plunged  it  to  his  heart. 

"By  this  time  the  two  parties  had  drawn  up  in  close  view  of  each 
other,  and  at  the  close  of  the  battle,  Mah-to-toh-pa  held  up,  and  claimed 
in  deadly  silence,  the  knife  and  scalp  of  the  noble  Shienne  chief." 

The  two  parties  then  separated,  and  Mah-to-toh-pa  was  borne  to  his 
home  where  in  time  he  recovered.—  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  152,  et  seq. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


M 


SOURCES  OF  MATERIAL  FOR  MANUFACTURED 
OBJECTS. 

OST  of  the  mineral  substances  utilized  by  Ohio  aborigines 
in  the  manufacture  of  objects  for  their  various  needs, 
are  found  within  the  borders  of  the  state.  The  glacier, 
or  ice-sheet,  which  once  reached  diagonally  from  northern  Penn- 
sylvania to  the  Ohio  river  near  Cincinnati  brought  from  the  Can- 
adian highlands  vast  quantities  of  granite,  sienite,  diorite,  and 
some  other  very  dense  stone,  which  answered  admirably  for  axes, 
tomahawks,  pestles,  hammers,  and  other  implements  that  must  be 
at  once  hard  and  tough.  By  the  same  agency  came  the  banded 
Huronian  slate  of  suitable  texture  and  appearance  for  the  various 
ceremonial  articles.  The  latter  stone  was  too  soft  to  withstand  the 
wear  and  tear  of  such  transportation,  consequently  it  is  found  only 
in  the  northern  portions  of  the  state  in  any  great  quantity.  All 
other  rocks  are  in  profusion  as  far  south  as  the  southern  limit 
of  the  glacier,  except  where  covered  up  by  later  silt  deposits, 
and  line  the  shores  of  every  stream  which  rises  in  drift-covered 
territory.  So  the  native  workman  was  never  at  a  loss  for  a 
stone  for  the  fabrication  of  anything  in  that  line  he  needed. 
Flint  will  be  described  in  the  section  on  flint  implements.  Cop- 
per comes  from  northern  Michigan;  mica  from  North  CaroHna ; 
steatite  from  Virginia;  galena  (lead  ore)  from  Kentucky  and 
Illinois ;  hematite  is  found  in  few  spots  in  southwestern  Ohio 
but  occurs  plentifully  in  West  Virginia,  as  does  cannel  coal. 
The  latter  is  also  in  Ohio,  but  not  in  position  to  be  reached  by 
primitive   workers. 

ART  IN   STONE.       METHODS  OF  WORKING.       CLASSIFICATION.       USES. 

In  all  parts  of  the  state,  but  especially  along  the  principal 
rivers  artificial  objects  of  stone  are  found  in  such  numbers  as 
to  astonish  collectors  and  students.  Year  after  year,  the  same 
fields  yield  their  tribute  to  the  cabinet ;   every  forest  cleared  away, 

(509) 


510  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

every  old  meadow  put  in  cultivation,  opens  up  a  new  source  of 
supply.  With  each  successive  plowing,  relics  in  sufficient  num- 
bers to  stimulate  further  research  are  brought  to  light  on  vil- 
lage-sites which  keen-eyed  collectors  have  scanned  until  it  would 
seem  not  a  flake  could  be  left.  There  are  localities  in  Ohio 
where  some  article  bearing  traces  of  work  by  a  primitive  arti- 
san has  been  picked  up  on  every  square  yard  of  surface  over 
many  acres.  While  most  of  them  are  fragmentary,  or  not  so 
carefully  finished  as  to  be  desirable  cabinet  specimens,  a  large 
proportion  are  still  in  condition  to  have  been  serviceable  to  the 
original  owners.  Their  great  abundance  has  been  considered 
evidence  that  the  aboriginal  workman  possessed  some  metal  by 
which  they  could  be  "  cut  out  of  rock  "  so  rapidly  and  so  easily 
that  it  was  more  convenient  to  make  a  new  one  than  to  be  at 
the  trouble  of  looking  up  one  already  in  existence.  It  really 
proves  just  the  opposite;  if  a  man  were  able  to  make  one 
tool  that  would  produce  such  results,  he  could  make  any  number 
of  them,  and  these  tools,  when  made,  would  serve  his  purpose  so 
much  better  than  the  stone  implements,  that  he  could  have  no 
object  in  making  the  latter.  If  a  person  wishes  to  crack  a  nut, 
and  has  a  hammer,  he  will  use  it  for  the  purpose;  he  will  not 
go  to  a  rock  pile  and  there  work  out  a  stone  to  a  convenient 
size  and  shape  for  his  needs. 

This  profusion  of  specimens  may  result  from  several  causes. 
It  may  be  due  to  occupancy  of  the  region  for  a  long  period  of 
time,  by  a  people  whose  ghostly  fears  forbade  the  use  of  any- 
thing belonging  to  a  generation  that  had  passed  away.  There 
may  have  been  a  skill  or  facility  in  working  stone  that  made 
httle  account  of  a  majority  of  these  implements.  The  utter  dis- 
regard of  the  value  of  time  or  labor,  or  the  careless  indifference 
concerning  small  items  of  personal  property,  characteristic  of 
those  whose  possessions  are  very  limited  in  extent  or  value; 
the  lack  of  foresight  which  wastes  today  without  thought  of 
tomorrow ;  the  ease  with  which  a  new  supply  could  be  obtained 
from  those  who  made  a  business  of  furnishing  such^things ;  any 
of  these  reasons  may  have  made  the  procurement  of  a  new  article 
preferable  to  the  trouble  of  searching  for  one  that  was  lost  or 
mislaid.  Many  were  no  doubt  dropped  in  the  fields  or  forests, 
or  gathered  up  and  thrown  away  with  the  refuse  which  so  rapidly 
accumulates  about  a  primitive  hut  or  wigwam.     Famine,   dis- 


Abundance  of  Stone  Implements.  511 

ease,  or  war,  might  cause  the  relatively  few  survivors  of  a  com- 
munity  to  seek  a  new  home,  leaving  behind  them  what  was  not 
necessary  on  the  journey ;  or  the  same  causes  may  have  resulted 
in  the  destruction  of  a  village  whose  site  would  soon  be  hidden 
by  a  vigorous  growth  of  weeds  and  bushes  and  buried  beneath 
the  accretions  of  encroaching  forests. 

The  most  plausible  explanation  is  that  the  prime  motive 
was  superstition  or  childish  petulance.  Any  boy  who  plays  mar- 
bles has  a  favorite  ''  taw  "  which  he  believes  to  be  "  lucky,"  and 
which  he  can  not  be  induced  to  exchange  for  another  identical 
in  every  respect,  even  though  considerable  "  boot "  be  offered ; 
on  the  other  hand,  he  will  soon  get  rid  of  one  that  proves  to  be 
''no  good."  The  savage  is  only  a  grown-up  boy  in  many  cases, 
and  under  the  same  circumstances  will  act  in  the  same  way. 
For  example,  if  he  has  been  successful  in  winning  a  series  of 
wagers  with  a  gambling  outfit,  he  will  not  part  with  it  at  any 
price.  An  arrow  which  has  missed  a  deer,  especially  if  more  than 
once,  will  be  regarded  as  unlucky  or  bewitched,  or  in  some 
other  way  rendered  incapable  of  bringing  success  to  its  owner, 
and  he  would  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  it;  or  he  might  believe  that 
through  some  innate  depravity  the  weapon  purposely  miscarried, 
in  which  case  he  would  be  very  apt  to  break  it  to  pieces  with 
the  first  convenient  stone. 

"  The  North  American  Indians  prefer  a  hook  that  has  caught  a  big 
fish  to  a  handful  that  have  never  been  tried."  —  Hearne,  330. 

"  The  Bushmen  despise  an  arrow  that  has  once  failed  of  its  mark  ; 
and  on  the  contrary,  consider  one  that  has  hit  as  of  double  valueThey 
will,  therefore,  rather  make  new  arrows,  how  much  time  and  trouble  so- 
ever it  will  cost  them,  than  collect  those  that  have  missed  and  use  them 
again."  —  Lichtenstein. 

So  with  other  belongings.  Very  many  educated  people  are 
more  or  less  influenced  by  similar  whims. 

The  relative  scarcity  of  symmetrical,  highly  finished,  and 
really  artistic  specimens  of  any  kind,  as  compared  with  the 
abundance  of  ruder,  rougher  ones,  no  doubt  signifies,  as  does 
the  same  state  of  affairs  among  ourselves,  that  a  few  persons 
in  a  community  or  tribe  were  more  skillful  or  had  greater  apti- 
tude for  such  work  than  the  majority.  It  may  be  that  any  par- 
ticular phase  of  industry,  as  the  manufacture  of  pipes,  large 
symmetrical  flint  implements,  certain  kinds  of  ornaments,  etc., 


612  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

attained  its  highest  development  at  the  hands  oi  one  person 
whose  efforts  were  confined  to  this  particular  class  of  articles. 
Another  fact  of  similar  import  is  the  occurrence  within  a  limited 
district  of  many  specimens  of  a  form  very  rarely  found  outside 
of  that  area;  for  example,  a  peculiar  flint  knife  in  two  or  three 
counties  of  central  Ohio,  which,  oddly  enough,  is  also  abundant 
in  the  Kanawha  valley.     Many  such  instances  could  be  cited. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  warn  students  to  be  on 
the  lookout  for  frauds,  as  they  are  liable  to  appear  at  any  time 
in  the  most  unexpected  places.  There  are  few  things  of  beauty, 
value,  or  interest  among  relics,  that  have  not  been  counterfeited 
by  unscrupulous  tricksters  eager  to  profit  by  the  credulity  of  in- 
experienced collectors.  To  such  an  extent  has  this  been  carried 
that  anything  out  of  the  ordinary  is  to  be  viewed  with  suspicion. 
Much  ingenuity  has  been  displayed  in  hiding  tablets,  carvings 
and  pottery,  in  places  where  they  will  afterwards  be  discovered 
by  some  one  unconscious  of  the  deception,  who  may  thus  be  de- 
luded into  the  belief  that  he  has  a  genuine  alphabetic  inscription, 
effigy  of  a  mastodon  or  other  animal,  Mexican  idol,  paleolithic 
implement,  statue  of  a  Mound  Builder,  or  some  other  wonderful 
thing  that  is  to  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  history  of  an  un- 
known race. 

"  Many  boys  often  practice  on  broken  specimens  until  they  can  re- 
point  them  into  handsome  examples  of  scrapers,  trimmed  flakes  and  other 
forms.  The  skill  with  which  one  urchin  chipped  the  characteristic  bev- 
eled edge  of  a  scraper,  using  only  a  small  quartz  pebble  as  a  hammer  or 
chipper,  was  marvelous.  Hundreds  of  hematite  objects  are  manufactured 
in  Cincinnati  and  other  cities.  In  mound  pottery  and  striped  slate  there 
are  abundant  counterfeits  offered  by  dealers  in  curiosities.  Philadelphia 
has  the  honor  (?)  of  being  the  headquarters  of  steatite  frauds.  Even  In- 
dian graves  are  manufactured  to  order  with  a  half-decayed  skeleton  from  a 
Potter's  field  and  various  relics  either  gathered  from  the  surface  or  man- 
ufactured for  the  occasion."  —  Abbott:  Frauds,  condensed. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  difference  in  form  or  finish 
denotes  a  difference  in  age.  While  a  long  period  must  separate 
the  rude  beginning  of  an  art  such  as  flint-chipping  from  the  per- 
fection finally  reached,  it  does  not  follow  that  improvement  is 
uniform.  Crude  work  may  prevail  during  the  entire  stage  of  pro- 
gress.    In  fact, 

"  When  an  old  art  dies  out,  in  consequence  of  being  supplanted  or 
superseded  by  a  new  art,     *     *     *     of  any  particular  kind  of  implement. 


Similarity  of  Mound  and  Surface  Specimens.  513 

the  rudest  forms  of  all  may  be  the  very  latest."  Many  objects  of  stone 
and  clay,  which  are  usually  considered  prehistoric,  are  in  common  use 
to-day  in  Scotland  and  the  outlying  islands;  clay  vessels  and  utensils 
for  daily  use  are  constantly  manufactured.  *'  The  rudest  pottery  ever 
discovered  among  the  relics  of  the  stone  age  is  not  ruder  than  this,  and 
no  savages  in  the  world  are  known  to  make  pottery  of  a  coarser  character." 
—  Mitchell,  22  and  28. 

When  a  man  discovers  that  with  the  proceeds  of  a  day's 
hunt  or  a  day's  labor  he  can  procure  implements  or  utensils 
more  suitable  and  more  durable  than  anything  of  the  kind  he 
can  make  for  himself,  he  will  naturally  spend  no  more  time  and 
labor  upon  any  article  than  will  make  it  serve  his  purpose  until 
an  opportunity  offers  of  getting  something  more  serviceable. 


A  line  is  drawn  by  many  collectors  and  authors  between 
objects  of  prehistoric  art  found  in  the  mounds  and  those  picked  up 
on  the  surface,  as  if  they  must,  of  necessity,  be  distinct  in  their 
origin. 

The  former  do  not  surpass  the  latter  in  any  particular. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  contrary  opinion  should  be  so  com- 
monly accepted  and  so  tenaciously  adhered  to  despite  the  evidence 
of  abundant  material  widely  distributed  and  readily  accessible  for 
examination.  Because  many  specimens  really  beautiful  in  de- 
sign and  execution,  are  exhumed  from  tumuli,  and  many  rude 
or  hastily  wrought  ones  are  gathered  up  on  the  surface,  or  ob- 
served in  use  among  the  Indians  of  the  present  day,  it  seems  to  be 
taken  for  granted  that  all  relics  may  be  assigned  to  one  or  the 
other  class  according  to  their  beauty  or  lack  of  that  quality.  But 
the  converse  is  equally  true ;  some  modern  or  surface  specimens 
are  more  artistic  and  of  better  finish  than  most  of -those  from 
mounds.  If  a  committee  were  selected,  knowing  nothing  of 
archgeolog}^  but  thoroughly  competent  to  decide  upon  questions 
of  form,  symmetry,  proportions,  color,  delicate  accuracy  of  touch,, 
mechanical  skill,  and  adaptation  to  intended  use;  and  were  re- 
quired to  decide  upon  the  relative  merits  of  two  collections,  based 
upon  these  properties ; —  one  collection  to  comprise  the  exquisite,, 
gem-like  arrow  points  from  Arizona  and  Oregon;  the  long, 
slender,  finely-chipped  knives  or  spear-heads  of  agate  and  obsid- 

33 


514  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

ian  from  the  Pacific  coast ;  the  smooth,  compact,  perfectly  mould- 
ed pottery  from  the  Pueblos  of  the  southwest;  the  ornaments, 
masks,  and  engraved  emblematic  figures  of  shell,  of  the  Cherokees 
and  Shawnees;  the  copper  tools,  weapons  and  ornaments,  from 
Wisconsin;  the  carefully-made  arrow-heads,  spear-heads,  and 
knives  of  flint,  the  polished  tomahawks  and  grooved  axes,  the 
finely  carved  ''ceremonial  stones,"  found  so  abundantly  through- 
out the  Ohio  valley  and  known  to  have  been  in  use  among  the 
Indians,  in  the  one  lot;  and  the  best  pieces  of  a  similar  charac- 
ter exhumed  from  the  largest  mounds,  in  the  other  lot: — the 
modern  specimens  would  have  nothing  to  fear  as  to  the  verdict. 

With  the  notable  exception  of  grooved  axes,  of  which  very 
few  have  been  unearthed,  all  the  ordinary  forms  of  so-called 
Indian  relics,  whether  of  a  useful,  ornamental,  or  supposed  cere- 
monial character,  made  of  stone  or  other  durable  substance,  are 
common  in  the  mounds,  and  present  no  special  features  in  appear- 
ance or  material  that  may  not  be  observed  in  similar  specimens 
found  on  the  surface  in  the  immediate  neighborhood.  Objects 
peculiar  to  mounds  are  almost  invariably  made  of  something  that 
would  soon  be  destroyed  if  exposed  to  the  weather;  as  pottery, 
bone,  shell,  copper,  wood,  textile  fabrics,  or  soluble  mineral, 
whose  preservation  is  due  to  the  protection  afforded  by  the  earth 
above  them.  Consequently,  they  should  not  be  brought  out  as 
evidence  in  making  comparisons. 

The  pottery  from  the  Ohio  mounds  is  much  inferior  in  exe- 
cution and  finish  to  that  from  the  Missouri^ Arkansas  district; 
and  this,  in  turn,  does  not  equal  the  clay  work  of  the  Zuni  Pueblos 
either  ancient  or  modern.  The  arrow-heads  from  Arizona  and 
Oregon,  made  by  Indians  of  a  rather  low  grade,  are  not  equalled 
by  similar -weapons  from  any  part  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  even 
when  chipped  from  such  material  as  the  stone  from  Flint  Ridge 
or  the  novaculite  of  Arkansas. 

The  popular  theory  implies  that  the  Mound  Builders  never 
lost  or  mislaid  anything,  but  sedulously  hid  away  all  their  treas- 
ures ;  while  other  tribes  who  have  lived  on  the  same  ground  either 
before  or  since,  were  extremely  careless  in  this  respect,  scattering 
their  property  at  random  for  later  collectors  to  find.  It  is  a  singu- 
lar coincidence  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  that  the  presumed  dif- 
ferent race  should  lose  upon  the  village-sites  of  the  Mound 
Builders  so  great  a  number  of  things  precisely  similar  in  every 


Similarity  of  Mound  and  Surface  Specimens.  515 

respect  to  those  which  the  latter  had  thus  carefully  buried  out 
of  sight. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  discovery  in  mounds  of  objects  show- 
ing characteristic  Indian  manipulation  does  not  signify  that  these 
mounds  were  built  by  known  tribes ;  it  is  only  an  indication  that 
the  Mound  Builders  had  not,  in  this  particular,  advanced  beyond 
the  Indian.  Still,  the  following  facts  are  of  interest  in  this  con- 
nection. 

The  cairns  and  small  mounds  between  the  Alleghanies  and 
the  Blue  Ridge,  thought  to  have  belonged  to  tribes  which  roamed 
over  that  region  until  about  1750,  yield  numerous  slate  gorgets 
and  steatite  pipes  of  the  forms  common  to  or  almost  typical  of 
the  Ohio  mounds,  along  with  relics  more  plentiful  near  the  sea- 
coast.  Very  many  pipes  are  found  in  the  mounds ;  over  the  whole 
mound  area;  and  among  all  the  modern  Indians.  But  they  are 
not  found,  unless  in  very  limited  numbers,  among  the  Mexicans 
or  farther  south,  where  cigarettes  are  in  common  use.  The  tubes 
found  on  the  Pacific  coast  may  be  pipes ;  as  may  those  of  Ten- 
nessee where  the  ordinary  forms  of  pipes  are  abundant.  Metates 
are  plentiful  in  the  southwest,  but  not  one  has  been  found  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  none  east  of  the  plains  except  two  or  three  In 
Missouri.  Mortars  occur  in  plenty  from  New  ]\Iexico  to  the  isth- 
mus, but  few  were  in  use  among  the  Mound  Builders  except  in  the 
form  of  flat  slabs  which  also  contain  grooves  for  sharpening  and 
polishing  other  stones. 

In  the  following  pages  no  distinctions  will  be  made  between 
surface  specimens  and  those  excavated  from  mounds,  graves,  or 
village  sites.  As  the  commoner  forms  are  quite  familiar  to 
readers,  either  from  illustrations  in  many  volumes  relating  to  this 
subject  or  from  inspection  of  the  articles  themselves  in  collections, 
no  detailed  description  or  classification  will  be  attempted.  The 
text  will  be  chiefly  devoted  to  an  explanation  of  the  processes 
by  which  the  articles  are  brought  into  their  final  shape,  and  the 
uses  made  of  them  when  completed.  This  information  is  derived 
in  part  from  the  accounts  of  travelers  and  in  part  from  the  reports 
of  those  who  have  endeavored  to  duplicate  the  various  forms 
with  such  tools  as  were  at  the  command  of  the  early  artificer. 
Most  of  the  cuts  represent  specimens  in  the  collection  of  the 
Society  and  of  the  Ohio  State  University,  though  a  few  are  bor- 
rowed from  other  sources. 


516  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  stone  objects  will  be  divided  into  two  general  classes, 
the  pecked  or  ground,  and  the  chipped.  The  former  class  in- 
cludes those  made  from  stone  suitable  for  working  into  form 
either  by  pecking  with  stone  hammers  or  by  rubbing  it  with  grit- 
rock  or  similar  means,  both  of  these  methods  being  frequently  re- 
sorted to  in  a  single  specimen.  The  latter  class  comprises  such 
as  are  more  readily  wrought  by  chipping  or  flaking  with  tools 
of  stone  or  bone. 

The  system  of  nomenclature  in  general  use  has  been  retained^ 
as  it  is  now  familiar  to  students  of  North  American  archaeology, 
though  not  entirely  satisfactory  in  all  respects. 

It  would  appear  difficult  or  impossible  to  do  with  such  rude 
tools  any  work  for  which  we  commonly  have  recourse  to  the 
carpenter's  chest ;  and  yet,  by  the  aid  of  fire,  or  even  without  it, 
many  primitive  tribes  contrived  to  accomplish  a  great  deal  with 
them.  Some  results  challenge  comparison  with  anything  executed 
through  the  medium  of  steel  tools  or  other  appliances  of  civili- 
zation. 

"  The  Peruvians  and  Mexicans,  whose  monuments  emulate  the 
proudest  of  the  old  world,  were  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  use  of 
[iron],  and  constructed  their  edifices  and  carried  on  their  agricultural 
operations  with  implements  of  wood,  stone  and  copper. —  S.  &  D.,  196. 

"The  Aztec  jewelers  *  *  *  could  cut  and  polish  emeralds, 
amethysts,  cornelians,  turquoises  and  iron  pyrites.  [One  of  five  emeralds] 
carved  by  order  of  Cortez  by  the  jewelers  of  Mexico  *  *  *  for  which 
certain  Genoese  merchants  offered  as  many  as  40,000  ducats,  was  cut 
in  the  form  of  a  cup  and  ornamented  with  four  fine  golden  chains  con- 
nected with  a  pearl."  —  Biart,  280. 

In  the  Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  on 
page  250,  is  a  figure  of  a  ceremonial  adze,  which  is  a  very  fine 
example  of  Polynesian  wood-carving.  In  beauty  and  intricacy 
of  execution  this  specimen  would  be  difficult  to  surpass  with  the 
product  of  a  Swiss  or  German  workshop. 

Among  the  Maories  of  New  Zealand  "  their  large  houses  and  canoes, 
their  weapons,  ornaments  and  utensils  were  beautifully  finished  and 
elaborately  carved  or  painted.  Their  instruments  were  of  stone,  wood, 
or  shell."  —  Nation  ;    also  Wood,  200. 

"Until  recently  the  Fijian  mechanic  had  no  iron  wherewith  to  form 
his  tools,  which  were,  of  course,  few  and  simple.  The  axe  or  adze  was 
a  hard  stone  ground  into  [shape.]  *  *  *  Various  modifications  of 
this  tool  were  all  the  Fijian  had  with  which  to  hew  out  his  posts  and 
planks,   to   cut  down   trees,   or  make  the  nicest  joints,   or  together  with 


Boat  Making  and  Fine  Carving  without  Metal.  517 

shells,  to  execute  the  most  marvelous  carving.  Fire-sticks  and  the  long 
spines  of  echini  supplied  his  boring  apparatus.  With  rats'  teeth  set  in 
hard  wood,  he  executed  his  most  minute  carving  or  engraving;  and  for 
a  rasp  or  file  he  used  the  mushroom  coral,  or  the  shagreen-like  skin 
of  the  ray-fish,  and  pumice-stone  for  general  finishing  purposes.  With 
.no  other  aids  than  these,  the  v^orkman  of  Fiji  was  able  to  accomplish 
feats  of  joining  and  caiving  —  the  boast  of  mechanics  provided  with 
all  the  steel  tools  and  other  appliances  which  art  can  furnish." 

"  The  variety  of  spears  is  very  great,  and  shows  the  best  specimens 
of  native  carving,  many  of  the  fine  open  patterns  being  beautifully 
executed."  "  The  handles  of  some  [clubs]  and  the  entire  surface  of 
others,  are  covered  with  fine  and  elaborate  carving ;  a  few  are  inlaid 
with  ivory  and  shell." 

"  A  good  canoe  [made  with  these  simple  tools]  would  safely  convey 
a  hundred  persons  and  several  tons  of  goods  over  a  thousand  miles  of 
ocean.  *  *  *  Such  canoes  seldom  exceed  a  hundred  feet  in  length." 
—  Fiji,  58-60. 

The  Caribs  of  the  West  Indies  made  one  style  of  boat  which  "  was 
about  forty-two  feet  long  and  seven  feet  wide  at  the  middle,  *  *  * 
built  of  the  Westindia  cedar.  *  *  *  One  tree  made  the  keel  of  the 
vessel."  The  entire  work  of  felling  the  tree,  and  preparing  the  lumber 
for  the  boats  "  was  performed  by  means  of  sharp  hatchets  made  of  flint. 
The  Caribs  had  not  the  saw."  —  Amer. ,    I,    391. 

"  The  boats  of  the  Nootka  Indians  of  British  Columbia  are  dug 
out  each  from  a  single  pine  tree,  and  are  made  of  all  sizes  from  ten 
to  fifty  feet  long,  the  largest  accommodating  forty  or  fifty  men.  Select- 
ing a  proper  tree  in  the  forest,  the  aboriginal  Nootka  fells  it  with  a  sort 
of  chisel  of  flint  or  elk  horn,  three  by  six  inches,  fastened  in  a  wooden 
handle,  and  struck  by  a  smooth  stone  mallet.  Then  the  log  is  split  with 
wooden  wedges;  it  is  hollowed  out  with  the  aforesaid  chisel,  a  mussel- 
shell  adze,  and  a  bird's  bone  gimlet  worked  between  the  two  hands. 
Sometimes,  but  not  always,  fire  is  used  as  an  assistant.  The  exterior  is 
fashioned  with  the  same  tools."  —  H.  H.  Bancroft,  I,  180. 

The  Nootka  Sound  Indians,  with  flint  knives  and  hatchets  cut  the 
hardest  part  of  elk  horns  into  the  form  of  chisels.  With  these,  struck  by 
a  heavy  stone  mallet  with  a  withe  for  a  handle,  they  cut  around  a  large 
cedar  till  it  falls.  For  digging  out  the  boat  a  large  mussel  shell  is 
sharpened  at  the  edge  and  set  in  withes  of  tough  wood,  forming  a  sort 
of  adze,  with  which  the  work  is  finished.  —  Catlin,  Rambles,  102. 

On  the  northwest  coast  "jade  implements  were  cut  from  blocks  of 
rock,  by  means  of  quartz  crystals,  into  slabs  of  the  required  thickness, 
and  were  afterwards  sharpened  and  ground  into  shape  on  sandstone  and 
finished  with  fine  sand  and  water  on  a  porphyry  slab  or  with  oil  on  a 
slab  of  siliceous  slate."  —  ]\Iackey,  102. 

"  The  Root  Digger  Indians  made  canoes  from  pine  trees  over  three 
feet  in  diameter.  The  axes  they  used  were  of  stone  and  provided  with 
long,  springy,  willow  handles ;    the  small  end  of  the  willow  being  securely 


518  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

withed  around  the  stone  and  then  wrapped  around  the  handle  and' 
reinforced  by  strips  of  raw  hide  braided  in,  and  the  whole  made  firm  with 
a  coating  of  some  kind  of  gum  or  glue.  In  cutting  down  a  tree  they 
used  the  poll  of  the  axe  as  a  hammer  and  by  hard,  quickly  repeated 
blows,  soon  battered  loose  a  cortical  layer  of  the  wood.  When  the 
woody  fibers  were  in  this  way  broken  or  battered  loose  they  were  pried 
up  by  inserting  under  them  a  greasewood  stick,  chisel-shaped  at  the  end, 
and  hardened  by  burning;  or  armed  with  a  chisel-shaped  stone  fastened 
to  it  with  deer  sinew  and  gum.  To  aid  this  lever  in  breaking  away  the 
loosened  layer  the  axe  was  reversed  and  with  its  edge  the  wood  was 
cut  or  hacked  until  free  and  then  removed.  They  felled  the  tree  in 
comparatively  a  short  space  of  time.  The  trunk  of  the  prostrate  tree  was. 
burned  off  at  the  proper  length  and  the  bark  all  pounded  off  with  rough 
or  rudely  edged  stones.  Then  the  top  of  the  log  was  cut  down  to  a 
level,  flat  surface,  partly  by  the  hammering  process,  but  largely  by  burn- 
ing. In  the  same  way  the  curved  shape  was  given  to  the  prow.  Then 
commenced  the  excavation  or  hollowing  out  of  the  log  by  fire,  aided  by 
picking  down  and  scraping  out  the  charred  wood  with  stone  imple- 
ments. To  limit  the  action  of  the  fire  wet  mud  was  placed  on  such 
portions  as  were  not  intended  to  be  further  reduced.  With  broad,  sharp- 
edged  flat  stones  they  scraped  and  rubbed  both  the  interior  and  exterior 
until  the  dug-out  was  of  regulation  form,  with  the  entire  surface,  in 
and  out,  perfectly  true  and  even."  —  Yaple,  323,  et  seq. 

"  For  those  necessary  purposes  for  which  the  axe  would  seem  tO' 
be  indispensable,  the  Iroquois  used  the  stone  chisel.  In  cutting  trees,  fire 
was  applied  to  the  foot,  and  the  chisel  used  to  clear  away  the  coal.  By 
a  repetition  of  the  processes,  trees  were  felled  and  cut  to  pieces.  Wooden 
vessels  were  hollowed  out  by  the  same  means."  —  Iroquois,  358. 

The  Virginia  Indians  at  an  early  day  employed  a  similar  process. 
They  also  cleared  ground  for  cultivation  by  deadening  trees  with  their 
tomahawks,  and  used  adzes  made  of  shell  for  cleaning  away  the  charred 
wood  when  burning  out  canoes. —  Beverly,  198;  Wyth,  part  I,  plate  14. 

"  In  the  account  of  his  trip  through  the  lake  which  bears  his  name,. 
Champlain  speaks  several  times  of  the  use  which  his  savage  companions, 
made  of  their  stone  axes.  He  does,  indeed,  call  these  axes  very  bad^ 
but  he  also  tells  us  that  when  the  Indians  wished  to  camp  for  the  night 
they  made  a  barricade  by  cutting  down  large  trees  with  these  axes  and 
that  they  were  able  in  two  hours  to  make  so  strong  a  defense  that  five- 
hundred  men  could  not  break  through  without  great  loss.  Nor  did  they 
use  fire  in  this  instance,  for  Champlain  says  that  when  making  the 
barricade  they  did  not  kindle  a  fire  lest  the  smoke  reveal  their  presence 
to  their  enemies."  —  Perkins,   108. 

"  If  the  ground  where  they  intended  to  make  a  maize  field  was 
covered  with  trees,  they  cut  off  the  bark  all  round  the  trees  with  their 
hatchets.  *  *  *  gy  ^j^^t  means  the  tree  became  dry.  *  *  *  'pj^g. 
smaller  trees  were  then  pulled  out  by  main  force."  —  Kalm,  341. 


The  Use  of  Stone  Implements  in  Recent  Times.        519 

In  making  mortars  "  they  cautiously  burned  a  large  log  to  a  proper 
level  and  length,  placed  fire  a-top  and  wet  mortar  [mud]  around  it,  in 
order  to  give  the  utensil  a  proper  form ;  and  when  the  fire  was 
extinguished,  or  occasion  required,  they  chopped  the  inside  with  their 
stone  instruments,  patiently  continuing  the  slow  process  till  they  finished 
the  machine  to  the  intended  purpose."  —  Adair,  416. 

In  making  boards  "  they  cut  the  tree  to  a  proper  length  and  split 
it  with  a  maul  and  hard  wooden  wedges,  when  they  have  indented  it  a 
little  in  convenient  places  with  their  small  hatchets."  —  Adair,  419. 

Sagard,  speaking  of  the  Hurons  in  Canada,  says :  "The  Indians 
belt  the  trees  about  two  or  three  feet  from  the  ground,  then  they  trim 
off  all  the  branches  and  burn  them  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  in  order  to  kill 
it,  and  afterwards  they  take  away  the  roots.  This  being  done,  the 
women  carefully  clean  up  the  ground  between  the  trees,  and  at  every 
step  they  dig  a  round  hole  in  which  they  sow  nine  or  ten  grains  of 
maize,  which  they  have  first  carefully  selected  and  soaked  for  some  days 
in  water."  —  Carr,  Mounds,  515. 

"I  have  seen  several  [axes]  which  chanced  to  escape  being  buried 
with  their  owners,  and  were  carefully  preserved  by  the  old  people  as 
respectable  remains  of  antiquity.  They  twisted  two  or  three  tough  hiccory 
flips,  of  about  two  feet  long,  round  the  notched  head  of  the  axe,  and  by 
means  of  this  simple  and  obvious  invention  they  deadened  the  trees  by 
cutting  through  the  bark  and  burned  them.  *  *  *  In  the  first  clearing 
of  their  plantations  they  only  bark  the  large  timber,  cut  down  the  sap- 
plings  and  underwood,  and  burn  them  in  heaps;  as  the  suckers  shoot 
up  they  chop  them  off  close  by  the  stump,  of  which  they  make  fires  to 
deaden  the  roots,  till  in  time  they  decay.  *  *  *  ^  common  hoe  and 
a  small  hatchet  are  all  their  implements  for  clearing  and  planting."  — 
Adair,  405. 

"  They  set  fire  to  a  great  quantity  of  wood  at  the  roots  of  the  tree 
and  make  it  fall  by  that  means.  But  that  the  fire  might  not  reach  higher 
than  they  would  have  it,  they  fastened  some  rags  to  a  pole,  dipped  them 
into  water,  and  kept  continually  washing  the  tree  a  little  above  the  fire. 
Whenever  they  intended  to  hollow  out  a  thick  tree  for  a  canoe,  they 
laid  dry  branches  all  along  the  stem  of  the  tree  as  far  as  it  must  be 
hollowed  out.  They  then  put  fire  to  those  dry  branches.  *  *  *  Whilst 
these  branches  were  burning,  the  Indians  were  very  busy  with  wet  rags 
and  pouring  water  upon  the  tree  to  prevent  the  fire  from  spreading  too 
far."  When  it  had  burned  enough,  they  took  "  stone-hatchets,  or  sharp 
flints,  and  quartzes,  or  sharp  shells,  and  scooped  off  the  burnt  part  of  the 
wood."  — Kalm,  340. 

By  some  of  the  western  Indians  grooved  axes  were  used  to  chop  up 
the  vertebrae  of  buffaloes,  which  are  boiled  to  obtain  the  marrow. — 
Long,  Rockies,  211. 

The  Mandans  collected  the  marrow  by  breaking  the  bones  with  axes 
or  hammers  and  boiling  them.  The  marrow  rose  to  the  top  and  was 
skimmed  off.     When  cool  it  "  becomes  quite  hard  like  tallow,  and  has  the 


520  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

appearance  and  very  nearly  the  flavour  of  the  richest  yellow  butter."  — 
Catlin,  Indians,  I,  116. 

There  are  specific  references,  also,  to  the  use  of  celts  or  un- 
grooved  hatchets. 

"  The  smaller  celts  have  been  supposed  to  be  used  as  knives  for 
skinning  animals,  yet  no  savage  was  ever  seen  to  skin  an  animal  with 
one  of  them.  On  the  contrary,  stone  knives  of  a  very  different  pattern 
are  used  for  this  purpose." — Abbott,  36. 

They  were  used,  however,  in  dressing  the  skins,  after  the 
manner  described  by  Dodge,  before  iron  blades  were  obtained 
from  the  whites. 

"  When  the  stretched  skin  has  become  dry  and  hard  from  the  action 
■of  the  sun,  the  woman  goes  to-  work  on  it  with  a  small  iron  instrument 
shaped  somewhat  like  a  carpenter's  adze.  It  has  a  short  handle  of  wood 
or  elk  horn  tied  on  with  raw  hide,  and  can  be  used  with  one  hand. 
^  *  *  With  this  she  chips  at  the  hard  skin,  cutting  off  a  thin  shaving 
at  each  blow."  Skill  is  required  "to  cut  the  skin,  yet  not  cut  through 
it,  and  in  finally  obtaining  a  perfectly  smooth  and  even  inner  surface  and 
uniform  thickness."  —  Dodge,    Plains,   358. 

The  Shoshones  make  a  scraper  for  dressing  buffalo  skins  by  striking 
a  spall  off  from  a  quartzite  boulder.  The  implement  is  used  without 
further  alteration,  having  a  sharp  edge  all  around. —  Abbott,  137,  from 
Leidy. 

Stone  chisels  have  been  found  in  various  steatite  quarries,  where 
vessels  and  other  utensils  of  this  material  were  made,  and  the  marks  of 
their  use  is  plain  both  on  the  vessels  in  an  unfinished  state  and  on  the 
cores,  as  well  as  on  the  quarry  face. —  Mohr,  618;  Barber,  steatite,  403; 
McGuire,   steatite,  587 ;     Walker,  Science,   IX,   10 ;     Schumacher,   263. 

"  In  several  of  the  [steatite]  quarries  [in  Virginia]  we  have  found 
ordinary  grooved  axes,  most  of  them  having  been  remodeled  or  resharpened 
by  flaking  to  make  them  efficient  in  picking  and  cutting;  then  there  is 
a  large  class  of  chisel-like  tools  of  varied  sizes  and  shapes."  —  Holmes, 
Implements,  111. 

"  Steatite  and  like  soft  and  tough  massive  substances  were  cut  with 
pointed  pick-like  and  by  edged  chisel-like  blades,  probably  in  most  cases 
set  in  some  sort  of  handle  for  direct  free-hand  operation,  or  with  other 
classes  of  handles,  to  be  operated  with  the  aid  of  a  mallet  of  bone  or  of 
antler  or  wood.  Mica  must  have  been  cut  with  sharp  edges  or  points, 
such  as  are  furnished  by  the  fracture  of  glassy  varieties  of  stone."  — 
Holmes,  Implements,  105. 

Experiments  in  wood-cutting  with  the  chipped  flint  axes  so 
abundant  in  Denmark,  are  described  after  the  following  manner. 

"  These  axes  have  a  sharp  border  analogous  to  an  edge,  which 
has  always  been  produced  by  the  Fame  process,  that  is  to  say,  by  striking 


Experiment  with  Hatchets  of  Flint.  521 

off  a  single  chip  from  each  side  of  a  flint  disc  so  as  to  form  an  edge  by 
the  line  of  the  intersection  of  the  two  faces.  Such  an  edge  had  not  the 
resistance  of  an  edge  made  by  polishing.  The  blades  were  hafted  in  the 
manner  supposed  to  have  been  customary  in  the  stone  age,  and  used 
in  cutting  pieces  of  green  pine  wood.  A  stick  2i  inches  in  diameter 
was  cut  in  two  in  three-quarters  of  a  minute.  Another  stick  5  inches 
in  diameter  was  cut  in  ten  minutes.  Both  these  were  firmly  fixed  per- 
pendicularly on  a  work-bench.  A  log  5  inches  in  diameter,  fixed  on  a 
table,  was  cut  in  eight  minutes.  Experiment  showed  that  the  little  blades 
could  perfectly  take  the  place  of  chisels.  With  the  same  instruments 
used  as  chisels  two  logs  were  shaped  to  mortise  and  tenon.  All  the  logs 
of  the  experiments  were  still  covered  with  bark.  With  the  primitive 
implements  one  is  able  not  only  to  cut  large  trees,  but  to  perform  the 
work  of  less  complicated  carpentry  without  the  cutting  edge  becoming 
very  readily  deteriorated."  —  Smith,  G.  V.,  condensed. 

PECKED    OR    GROUND    OBJECTS. 

AXES,    CELTS   AND   GOUGES. 

Axes. 
The  principal  distinction  between  an  ax  and  a  celt  is  that  the 
one  has  a  groove  made  around  it  for  securing  a  handle  while  the 
surface  of  tne  other  is  regular  from  poll  to  edge.  There  is  a 
further,  but  minor  distinction  as  to  size;  while  a  majority  of  axes 
are  smaller  ihan  the  largest  celts,  yet  none  of  the  latter  equal  in 


\ 


Figure  141  —  Axe  With  Two  Grooves. 


weight  the  largest  of  the  former.  Grooved  axes  weighing  twenty 
pounds  or  even  more  have  been  found ;  but  such  as  these  must 
have  a  purpose  quite  apart  from  any  practical  use,  as  no  man  can 
handle  one.  Axes  having  two  grooves  occur  in  considerable 
numbers  in  the  Pueblos  of  the  southwestern  United  States,  but 
are  extremely  rare  elsewhere.     Only  two  or  three  are  known  in 


522  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Ohio;  one  is  shown  in  figure  141.  As  they  are  generaUy  smally 
the  utiHty  of  the  second  groove  is  not  evident;  it  may  be 
intended  to  secure  a  double  turn  of  the  withe  forming  its  handle. 

"  The  English  used  stone  weapons  at  the  battle  of  Hastings  in  1066, 
and  the  Scots  led  by  Wallace  did  the  same  as  late  as  1288  "  (Preh.  Peo., 
22);  while  stone  axes  were  used  by  the  Germans  at  as  late  a  period  as 
the  Thirty  Years'  War.— Knight,  242. 

T*  ••*  *#*  ^  ^ 

In  the  grooved  axes,  edge  means  the  cutting  portion ;  blade, 
the  part  below  the  groove;  poll  or  head,  that  above  the  groove; 
face,  the  wider  or  flat  portion  of  the  surface ;  side,  the  narrower 
part;  front,  that  side  farther  from  the  hand,  and  back,  the  side 
nearer  the  handle  when  in  use.  In  celts  the  terms  are  the  same 
so  far  as  they  are  applicable ;  blade  referring  to  the  lower  half  of 
the  implement,  that  is,  to  the  portion  on  which  the  cutting  edge 
is  formed. 

There  are  two  general  methods  of  grooving.  In  one,  a 
ridge  or  protuberance  was  left  encircling  the  weapon,  into  which 
the  groove  was  pecked,  as  seen  in  figure  144.  The  axe  thus  has 
greater  strength  with  the  same  amount  of  material.  Usually  the 
groove  has  been  worked  just  deep  enough  to  reach  the  body  of  the 
axe;  that  is,  to  a  depth  such  that  should  the  projections  be 
ground  oflf  there  would  remain  a  celt-like  implement. 

In  the  second  class  the  groove  is  formed  by  pecking  into  the 
body  of  the  axe  after  the  latter  is  dressed  into  shape ;  in  this  pat- 
tern a  regular  continuous  line  from  edge  to  poll  would  touch  only 
the  margins  of  the  groove,  leaving  it  beneath  (see  figure  151). 
An  apparent  medium  between  the  two  is  sometimes  seen,  in  which 
there  is  a  projection  on  the  lower  side  of  the  groove  only;  this 
is  due,  usually,  to  dressing  the  blade  down  thinner  after  the  imple- 
ment was  originally  worked  to  a  symmetric  outline.  By 
continuous  or  long  use  the  edge  of  the  axe  becomes  broken  or 
blunted  and  requires  sharpening,  and  in  order  to  keep  the  proper 
outline  to  make  the  tool  efficient,  it  is  necessary  to  work  the  blade 
thinner  as  it  becomes  shorter.  No  such  change  is  required  in 
the  poll,  consequently  a  projection  is  formed  where  originally 
there  was  no  trace  of  one. 

There  are  different  methods  of  finishing  the  axe,  which  may 
appear  with  either  form  of  groove.  The  poll  may  be  worked 
into  the  shape  of  a  flattened  hemisphere,  may  be  flat  on  top,  with 


Marks  of  Long  Use  on  Axes.  523 

the  part  between  the  groove  and  the  top  straight,  convex,  or  con- 
cave, or  may  be  worked  to  a  blunt  point,  with  straight  or  concave 
lines  to  the  groove.  The  blade  may  taper  from  the  groove  to  the 
gdge,  with  straight  or  curved  sides,  which  may  run  almost  parallel 
or  may  be  drawn  to  a  blunt  pointed  edge.  This  latter  form  is 
probably  due  to  breaking  or  wearing  of  the  blade,  which  is  re- 
worked. 

There  are  a  very  few  specimens,  in  which  the  axe  gradually 
increases  in  width  from  the  poll  to  the  edge ;  but  such  specimens 
seem  to  be  made  of  stones  which  had  this  form  approximately  at 
the  beginning,  and  were  worked  into  such  shape  as  would  give 
a  suitable  implement  with  the  least  labor. 

In  nearly  every  instance  the  groove  of  an  axe  with  a  groove 
projection  extends  entirely  around  with  practically  the  same 
depth,  and  the  blade  of  the  axe  has  an  elliptical  section.  Many,  if 
not  a  majority,  of  them  have  the  groove  wide  enough  for  a  very 
large  handle,  or  for  an  ordinary  withe  to  be  twisted  twice  around. 
In  those  which  have  the  groove  pecked  into  the  body  of  the  im- 
plement the  back  is  usually  ungrooved,  the  purpose  being  to 
admit  a  wedge  between  the  stone  and  the  curve  of  the  handle. 
The  handles  were  very  firmly  fastened;  examples  are  known 
which  have  been  broken  in  such  a  way  that  on  one  side,  from  the 
top  half  w^ay  down,  the  blade  is  gone,  carrying  away  the  groove 
on  that  side ;  yet  the  polish  of  the  groove  extends  over  the 
fractured  surface,  which  has  never  been  reworked,  showing  that 
the  tool  was  long  used  after  this  accident.  As  the  handles  could 
easily  slip  off  over  the  top  in  specimens  thus  broken,  they  must 
have  been  tightly  lashed;    perhaps  gum  or  glue  was  used. 

Partly  finished  specimens  show  that  the  groove  was  pecked 
out  and  the  edge  ground  before  the  remaining  parts  of  the  axe 
were  worked.  Some  have  the  edge  ground  sharp  and  the  groove 
worn  smooth  or  even  polished  by  long  use,  while  all  the  rest  of 
the  implement  retains  the  original  weathered  surface.  A  stone 
was  always  chosen  that  could  be  brought  to  the  desired  form 
with  the  least  labor,  and  very  often  one  could  be  found  that  re- 
quired but  little  work  to  make  a  very  satisfactory  weapon  or  im- 
plement or  even  ornament. 

Occasionally  specimens  indicate  by  the  manner  of  wear  their 
application  to  certain  kinds  of  work.  Sometimes  the  edge  is 
curved  by  the  wearing  away  of  one  face  until  it  has  almost  a 


524  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

gouge  form;  sometimes  the  side  of  the  blade  next  the  hand, 
again  that  farthest  away,  is  more  worn.  This  in  time  would  give 
a  blunt-pointed  edge.  Sometimes  a  specimen  seems  to  have 
a  ridge  on  the  upper  side  of  the  groove ;  but  closer  examina- 
tion will  show  that  it  once  had  a  groove  projection,  and  that 
afterwards  the  poll  was  nearly  all  broken  away  and  a  new 
groove  made  lower  down,  so  that  what  was  originally  the  lower 
projection  is  now  above  the  groove,  the  remainder  of  the  poll 
being  worked  down  to  a  point. 

There  are  a  few  hammers  which  differ  from  the  ordinary 
axe  only  in  being  blunt  instead  of  sharp.  They  may  be  nothing 
more  than  broken  axes,  utilized  as  hammers  instead  of  being 
resharpened. 

Under  this  head  may  be  placed  implements  plainly  used  as 
adzes.  They  are  much  longer  than  axes  in  proportion  to  their 
other  dimensions,  have  one  face  convex,  the  other  straight  or 
concave. 

Grooved  axes  apparently  found  little  favor  with  the  Mound 
Builders.  They  are  very  rare  in  ftumuli,  although  celts  or 
^'  hatchets  "  are  abundant.  Squier  and  Davis  record  only  two 
or  three  in  the  course  of  their  explorations,  and  remark  that 

"  Although  abundant  in  the  valleys  occupied  by  the  Mound-builders, 
they  are  not  frequent  in  the  mounds  themselves."  —  S.  &  D.,  216. 

Two  polished  grooved  axes  were  found  at  the  bottom  of 
the  conical  tumulus  connected  with  the  Serpent  Mound  (Put- 
nam, Serpent)  ;  and  a  small  one  lay  near  a  skeleton  surrounded 
by  limestone  slabs  in  a  small  mound  on  the  Muskingum  river, 
between  Lowell  and  Marietta  (Moorehead,  25).  If  any  others 
have  come  to  light  they  have  not  been  reported ;  nor  has  it  been 
my  fortune  either  to  unearth  one,  or  to  learn  of  their  discovery 
by  other  explorers,  in  several  hundred  mounds  opened. 


Very  exaggerated  ideas  are  entertained  regarding  the 
amount  of  time  and  labor  required  for  the  elaboration  of  these, 
and  various  other,  products  of  the  untutored  worker  in  stone. 

Lafitau  says 

'  Stone  axes  are  prepared  by  the  process  of  grinding  on  a  sand- 
stone and  finally  assume  at  the  sacrifice  of  much  time  and  labor,  nearly 
the  shape  of  our  axes  or  of  a  wedge  for  splitting  v^ood.     The  life  of  a 


Time  Required  to  make  a  Serviceable  Axe.  525 

savage  is  often  insufficient  for  completing  the  work,  and  hence  such 
an  implement,  however  rude  and  imperfect  it  may  be,  is  considered  a 
precious  heirloom  for  his  children."  —  Jones,  271. 

This  is  about  the  only  reference  to  the  idea  of  "heirlooms" 
among  the  Indians.  It  took  the  Jesuit  missionaries  a  long  time  to 
persuade  them  not  to  destroy  every  vestige  of  the  dead  man's 
property,  at  his  funeral. 

Recent  experimenters  strongly  dissent  from  this  belief  that 
so  much  time  was  required. 

"  The  writer  has  demonstrated  that  a  week  would  be  ample  time  in 
which  to  make  an  axe  of  the  hardest  stone,  as  it  is  known  that  a  few 
minutes  is  sufficient  to  make  an  arrow-head."  —  McGuire,   Drilling,  695. 

"  The  hand  hammer,  familiar  to  all,  was  probably  the  tool  upon 
which  races  living  in  the  stone  age  relied  more  than  upon  any  other 
object  to  fashion  other  stone  implements.  Not  only  did  the  savage  rely 
on  the  hammer  to  peck  an  axe  or  celt  into  shape,  but  it  was  also  used 
for  rubbing  or  polishing  the  implement  after  it  had  been  shaped."  A 
figure  of  a  grooved  stone  axe  is  presented,  with  the  remarks :  "  It  is  made 
of  a  close-grained  black  porphyry  that  in  1878  was  pecked  out  and  grooved 
entirely  with  a  stone  hammer  by  the  writer  as  a  first  effort  to  demonstrate 
the  method  of  axe-grooving.  The  work  on  this  stone  represents  approx- 
imately five  hours'  labor.  When  the  hardness  of  the  material  is  taken 
into  consideration,  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  it  could  not  have  taken 
more  than  half  as  much  time  to  groove  an  ordinary  axe,  since  they  are 
of  much  softer  material.  From  this  it  may  be  judged  that  to  fashion 
a  stone  axe,  or  in  fact  any  other  stone  implement  which  is  made  by 
pecking  and  polishing,  consumed  a  small  portion  of  the  time  supposed 
to  be  requisite.  Any  stone  implements,  statues,  etc.,  can  be  pecked  into 
form  with  stone  hammers  and  the  pitted  surface  on  all  such  work  is 
just  such  as  was  obtained  by  the  writer."  —  McGuire,  Hammer,  301,  et 
seq.,  condensed. 

With  stone  hammers,  McGuire  made  a  grooved  axe  from 
a  rough  block  broken  from  a  boulder  of  nephrite  from  New 
Zealand,  one  of  the  hardest  and  toughest  stones  known.  Various 
grades  of  stone  were  used  as  hammers ;  only  a  piece  of  very 
compact  jasper  was  of  any  value.  The  pecking  occupied  55 
hours  and  10  minutes.  With  a  jade  hammer  the  work  could 
have  been  completed  in  half  the  time.  The  pits  were  removed 
and  the  axe  made  smooth  by  rubbing  on  a  block  of  rotten  granite, 
kept  wet,  for  five  hours ;  and  in  six  hours  it  was  polished  with 
a  pebble  of  compact  quartzite. 

McGuire  next  took  a  rough  piece  of  kersantite,  a  rock  much 
tougher  than  was  generally  used  by  Indians  in  the  eastern  part 


526       ■  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

of  the  United  States.  From  this,  with  only  a  quartzite  hammer- 
stone,  and  a  quartzite  pebble  as  a  rubbing  stone,  he  made  and 
polished  with  less  than  two  hours  of  actual  labor  a  compara- 
tively well-finished  axe.  In  the  same  manner,  he  made  a  mask 
of  obsidian ;  and  a  glyph,  representing  a  toucan,  twelve  by  four- 
teen inches.  The  latter  required  about  five  hours'  work. — Mc- 
Guire,  Lapidary. 

In  figure  142  is  shown  an  axe  of  slate  on  which  are  marks 
of  the  various  methods  by  which  such  implements  are  made. 
The  poll  has  been  chipped  or  flaked;  the  groove  and  part  of 
the  blade  are  pecked  into  form ;  while  the  edge  is  rubbed  or 
ground.  Figure  143  represents  another  specimen  which  has 
been  utilized  while  still  in  a  rough  state.  Figures  144  to  153 
are  completed;  the  last  two  are  of  banded  slate,  which  will  not 
withstand  rough  usage. 

The  object  shown  in  figure  154  differs  from  the  ordinary 
form  in  having  the  lower  end  brought  to  a  point  instead  of  an 
edge.     It  probably  formed  the  head  of  a  war-club. 

Celts. 

The  name  "  celt  "  for  hatchet,  or  ungrooved  axe,  is  an  inno- 
vation which  seems  destined  to  hold  its  place,  although  a  very 
unsatisfactory  substitute.  The  word  means  a  "  chisel."  While 
some  specimens  have  a  remote  resemblance  to  this  tool  and  were 
used  somewhat  in  the  same  manner,  "hatchet"  is  more  appro- 
priate as  expressing  their  ordinary  purpose.  It  would  be  much 
better  if  the  native  word  tomahawk  were  retained  for  this,  ap- 
plying the  name  axe  to  the  grooved  form  merely  to  distinguish 
between  the  two.  The  thin  or  flat  celts  were  suitable  for  some 
kinds  of  work  to  which  axes  were  not  adapted.  Some  of  these 
w^ere  employed  as  adzes.  One  form  is  ground  down  thin,  with 
a  flat-elliptical  or  nearly  rectangular  section ;  the  sides  are 
straight  or  slightly  curved,  nearly  parallel  or  tapering  consider- 
ably to  the  top,  which  is  either  rounded  or  flattened.  All  these 
are  polished  over  the  entire  surface;  none  show  any  marks  of 
use  as  wedges  or  hatchets,  and  most  of  them  are  too  delicate 
for  such  use.  The  longer  ones  can  be  readily  grasped  in  the 
hand,  and  are  as  well  adapted  to  stripping  off  the  hide  of  an  ani- 
mal, dividing  the  skeleton  at  the  joints,  or  stripping  the  flesh 
from  the  bones  as  anything  made  of  stone  can  be ;    while  the 


Forms  of  Stone  Axes. 


627 


Figure  144. 
Grooved  Axes. 


528  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  145. 


Figure  146. 


Figure  117. 


Grooved  Axes. 


Figure  148. 


Forms  of  Stone  Axes. 


529 


34 


Figure  151. 
Grooved  Axes. 


630 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


\ 


Figure  152. 


Figure  153. 


Figure  154. 
Grooved  Axes. 

smaller  ones  set  in  a  handle  to  afford  a  grip,  would  answer  the 
same  purpose.  Some  are  sharp  at  both  ends ;  one  unfinished  spec- 
imen of  this  pattern,  of  rather  soft  argillite,  has  marks  of  peck- 
ing, chipping,  and  grinding,  showing  that  the  most  expeditious 
or  convenient  methods  of  shaping  and  finishing  were  practiced 
indifferently. 

The  various  ways  of  hafting  were  as  follows : 
(i)     A  hole  was  cut  entirely  through  a  stick  and  the  celt 
was  inserted  so  that  it  would  project  on  both  sides. 


Methods  of  Mounting  Stone  Hatchets  in  Handles.      531 

(2)  The  hole  was  cut  partly  through,  and  the  celt  was 
pushed  in  as  far  as  it  would  go. 

(3)  The  top  of  the  celt  was  set  in  a  socket  of  deer  horn, 
which  was  put  into  a  handle  as  in  form  2. 

(4)  Small  celt-shaped  knives  or  scrapers  were  set  into 
the  end  of  a  piece  of  antler  long  enough  to  be  used  as  a  handle. 

(5)  A  forked  branch  was  so  cut  as  to  make  two  prongs 
•of  nearly  equal  length,  and  the  celt  was  fastened  to  the  end  of 
one,  parallel  with  it,  the  other  being  used  to  guide  and  steady  it, 
a  prong  being  held  in  each  hand. 

(6)  The  fork  of  a  root  or  branch  was  trimmed  so  as  to 
make  a  flat  face  at  any  desired  angle,  to  which  the  celt  was  lashed, 
a  shoulder,  against  which  the  end  of  the  celt  was  set,  being 
sometimes  cut  in  the  wood. 

(7)  A  stick  was  split  its  entire  length  and  a  single  turn 
taken  around  the  celt,  the  ends  being  brought  together  and  tied, 
forming  a  round  handle. 

(8)  A  stick  was  split  part  way,  one  fork  cut  off  and  the 
other  wrapped  once  or  twice  and  tied,  thus  forming  a  round 
handle   of   solid   wood. 

Forms  5  and  6  were  used  as  adzes ;  forms  7  and  8  are  the 
same  methods  as  employed  in  hafting  grooved  axes. 

A  mounting  similar  to  form  4  is  seen  in  some  iVlaska  spec- 
imens of  celt-scrapers  in  which  the  implement  is  fastened  to 
a  piece  of  wood  so  as  to  project  a  short  distance,  and  used  like 
a  plane.  In  all  these,  the  celt  is  very  firmly  fastened  to  the  han- 
dle with  sinew  or  rawhide,  which,  when  put  on  green,  contracts 
w^ith  great  force  and  binds  like  wire. 

All  these  are  illustrated  in  the  Smithsonian  Report  for  1879. 

"  Oftentimes  they  [the  Virginia  Indians]  use  for  swords  the  home 
•of  a  Deere  put  through  a  peece  of  wood  in  form  of  a  pickaxe.  Some  a 
long  stone  sharpnd  at  both  ends,  used  in  the  same  manner."  —  Smith,  132. 

A  singular  method  of  hafting  is  described  by  Lafitau.  Of 
■course  his  statement  can  not  be  contradicted ;  but  such  a  plan 
would  probably  be  followed  only  by  a  dealer  in  the  weapons.  No 
one  else  could  wait  so  long. 

"  They  select  a  young  tree  which  they  make  a  handle  without  cut- 
ting it.  They  split  one  end  and  insert  the  stone.  The  tree  grows,  tightens 
around  it,  and  encloses  it  so  firmly  that  it  can  hardly  be  torn  out.     After- 


632  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

ward  they  cut  off  the  tree  at  the  proper  length,  so  as  to  have  a  handle 
to  the  axe  of  convenient  form." — Jones,  271. 

In  many  instances  the  top  has  been  roughened  as  if  for  in- 
sertion into  a  hole  cut  in  a  piece  of  wood ;  others  have  this 
roughening  around  the  middle  or  immediately  above,  leaving  a 
polish  at  both  ends,  and  these  were  hafted  probably  by  means  of 
a  stick  or  withe  twisted  around  them.  The  roughening  is  a  sec- 
ondary operation,  having  no  relation  to  the  making  of  the  imple- 
ment ;  it  was  produced  by  pecking  after  the  surface  was  polished. 
In  a  few  cases  it  extends  from  the  top  well  down  the  sides ;  but 
usually  it  reaches  but  a  Httle  way  below  the  top,  or  else  is  in  a 
circle  around  the  body  of  the  celt.  Most  of  them  have  sharp 
edges ;  a  few  have  edges  either  chipped  or  blunted  and  polished, 
showing  long  usage. 

Various  form  of  ''celts,"  used  as  hatchets,  scrapers,  or  chis- 
els, are  shown  in  figures  155,  156  and  157. 

Gouges. 

Implements  of  this  form  are  known  to  have  been  used  to 
tap  sugar  maples,  and  also  to  hollow  out  wooden  troughs,  and 
are  very  common  in  the  north,  though  less  abundant  in  the 
south.  It  is  in  those  localities  in  which  bark  instead  of  logs  was 
used  for  canoes  that  they  are  most  numerous.  Sometimes  they 
were  hollowed  the  whole  length  and  used  as  spiles.  They  were 
also  employed  instead  of  celts  in  hollowing  wooden  mortars  and 
the  like  when  a  more  regular  concavity  was  desired. —  Dawson, 
16  and  32. 

HEMATITE    CELTS. 

These  are  usually  very  small,  seldom  weighing  above  two 
or  three  ounces.  Sometimes,  however,  they  will  weigh  half  a 
pound  or  more,  and  occasionally  a  grooved  axe  of  this  material 
is  found.  As  a  rule  they  are  rubbed  down  directly  from  the 
nodule  or  concretion  in  which  this  ore  of  iron  so  frequently 
appears.  Occasionally  one  of  homogeneous  structure  has  been 
chipped  into  form  before  grinding,  the  facets  in  some  cases  being 
rubbed  nearly  away.  Sometimes  they  have  a  rectangular 
outline,  but  usually  the  sides  taper  from  the  edge  to  the  top  by 
a  gradual  curve,  or  are  parallel  a  part  of  the  way  and  then  taper 
either  by  a  straight  or,  oftener,  by  a  curved  line.     The  section 


Forms  of  Celts, 


533 


Figure  155  —  Hatchets,  Tomahawks,  or  "  Celts.' 


^^4  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  156  — Hatchets,  Tomahawks,  or  "  Celts." 


Forms  of  Celts. 


535 


Figure  157  —  Hatchets,  Tomahawks,  or  "  Celts. 


536 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


is  rectangular  or  elliptical.  The  prevailing  shapes  are  shown  in 
figure  158. 

These  implements  were  probably  used  as  knives  or  scrap- 
ers, being  set  into  the  end  of  a  piece  of  antler,  which  may  in 
turn  have  been  set  into  a  larger  handle  of  wood.  That  some 
were  knives  is  shown  by  the  edge  being  dulled  to  a  flat  polished 
surface  extending  from  side  to  side;  and  that  many  were  scrap- 
ers is  shown  by  their  celt-scraper  shape,  a  half  elliptical  section, 
or  by  the  scraper-form  edge. 

By  celts  having  a  scraper-form  edge  is  meant  those  with  the 
edge  to  one  side  of  the  median  line,  due  to  constant  use  of  one 
face.  This  face,  at  the  edge,  is  in  a  straight  line  from  side  to 
side;  it  may  have  a  chisel-like  flattening,  or  may  curve  toward 


C 


Figure  158  — Hematite  Celts. 

the  middle  of  the  celt  for  a  short  distance  and  then  have  the  same 
form  to  the  top  as  the  other  face,  which  is  convex  or  curved,  as 
in  the  ordinary  hatchet  celt.  They  form  a  medium  between  celts 
whose  faces  gradually  curve  from  top  to  edge,  and  the  celt- 
scrapers  which  are  flat  on  one  side.  Among  the  thicker  celts 
this  form  is  quite  rare. 

PESTLES. 

The  fact  of  the  ordinary  conical  or  bell-shaped,  long-cylin- 
drical, or  somewhat  pear-shaped  stones  having  been  used  for 
pestles  is  so  well  settled  that  no  confirmatory  references  are 
needed.  A  few  citations  may  be  given  in  regard  to  certain  forms 
sometimes  differently  classed,  especially  some  of  the  discoidal 
stones  to  be  hereafter  described. 

The  corn  crushers  used  by  the  Swiss  Lake-dwellers  are 
spherical ;  some  are  flattened  on  two  sides,  like  an  orange,  others 
almost  round  with  depressions  on  four  sides.  They  are  about 
the  size  of  a  man's  fist  or  rather  smaller.     The  Africans  have  a 


Forms  of  Pestles. 


537 


piece  of  quartz  or  other  hard  stone  as  large  as  half  a  brick,  one 
side  of  which  is  convex  to  fit  the  hollow  of  a  larger  stone  used 
as  a  mortar  (Stevens,  174).  Unpolished  disks  sometimes  show 
marks  of  use  as  hammers  or  pestles  (Evans,  218).  In  preparing 
pemmican,  the  American  Indians  pounded  the  dried  meat  to  a 
powder  between  two  stones  (Dodge,  Indians,  254;  Schoolcraft, 
History,  IV,  107;  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  416)  ;  this  gives  the  impres- 
sion that  any  suitable  stones  may  have  been  used.  The  ancient 
California  Indians  worked  out  a  round  stone  as  an  acorn  sheller, 
modern  tribes  using  any  smooth  stone. —  Powers,  433. 


Figure  159  — Pestles. 

The  two  shapes  most  common  in  Ohio  are  those  with  a  tap- 
ering or  cylindrical  handle  and  an  expanding  base,  or  somewhat 
like  a  pear  cut  across  through  the  thickest  part,  as  in  figures  159 
and  160;  and  those  which  are  conical  or  cylindrical,  with  the 
top  either  pointed  or  truncate,  shown  in  figure  161.  In  each  form 
the  bottom  may  be  flat,  convex,  or  curved  from  one  side  to  the 
opposite.  Some  are  quite  smooth  on  the  bottom  as  if  from  rub- 
bing either  back  and  forth  or  with  a  rotary  motion;  while  many 
have  the  bottom  pecked  rough,  showing  use  as  hammers  or 
pounders.  For  those  with  curved  bottoms  a  rocking  motion 
seems  best  adapted;  with  the  palm  resting  on  the  longer  side, 
good  work  may  be  done  in  any  of  these  ways.  The  pestles  which 
have  the  bottom  round  or  convex  are  generally  found  in  the  same 
localities  as  the  hollowed  stone  mortars ;  while  the  so-called  "roll- 
ing-pin," shown  in  figure  162,  which  is  quite  rare  in  Ohio,  was 
probably  used  with  a  wooden  mortar. 


538  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  160. 


Figure  161. 


Figure  162. 


Pestles, 


Stones  with  Pits  or  Cups.  539 

MULLERS. 

The  objects  known  as  mullers  are  generally  flat  or  smooth 
on  one  side  and  convex  on  the  other,  sometimes  with  a  pit  on 
one  side  or  both.  They  are  mostly  of  granite,  quartzite,  or  sand- 
stone, rarely  of  other  materials.  The  common  forms  are  shown 
in  figure  163.  They  were  also  used  as  pestles  with  the  hollow 
mortars,  as  the  edge  is  often  chipped  or  pecked;  in  these,  the 
pits  on  the  faces  are  intended  to  aftord  a  firmer  hold. 


Figure  163  —  Mullers. 


PITTED   STONES. 


Pitted  stones  occur  in  every  part  of  the  world,  being  so 
numerous,  indeed,  as  seldom  to  be  considered  worth  the  trouble 
of  gathering.  They  are  almost  invariably  water-worn  sandstone 
pebbles,  with  a  pit  varying  from  a  slight  roughening  of  the  sur- 
face to  a  hollow  half  an  inch  in  depth  pecked  in  each  face.  They 
probably  belong  with  hammerstones,  as  they  seldom  show  other 
marks  of  work,  the  edge  in  some  being  only  slightly  marked  in 
one  or  two  places,  while  in  others  it  is  much  worn. 

Slight  pits  aid  in  holding  stone  hammers;  they  also  prevent  the  jar 
to  a  large  extent.  If  used  to  pound  meat  or  break  stones,  it  would  be 
hard  to  hold  them  when  greasy  without  pits.  Such  implements  may 
have  had  handles  of  wood  with  projections  to  fit  the  pits. —  Evans,  213 
and  218. 

If  such  handles  were  used  at  all,  which  is  improbable,  a 
piece  of  buckskin  fastened  on  each,  opposite  the  pits,  would  do 
better  service  and  be  more  convenient  to  apply  than  such  "pro- 
jection." 

CUP-STONES. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  archaeologists  still  remain  in 
total  ignorance  as  to  the  functions  of  the  objects  commonly  known 


540  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

as  cup-stones.  Much  has  been  written  about  them,  including  a 
profusely  illustrated  monograph  by  Rau,  published  as  volume  V 
of  Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology;  but  no  definite 
information  is  forthcoming  as  to  their  use  or  purpose.  They 
occur  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  are  surpassed  in  numbers 
among  the  larger  stone  objects  only  by  pitted  stones  and  hammers. 
Over  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States  they  are  found  by 
thousands,  in  all  sorts  of  situations,  not  only  on  village-sites, 
but  in  mounds  and  cairns  where  they  are  apparently  thrown  in 
as  part  of  the  component  material,  like  any  other  stones.  They 
are  abundant,  too,  in  places  where  no  effort  of  the  imagination  can 
account  for  their  appearance.  For  instance  on  the  level  top  of 
a  hill  near  Jasper,  in  Pike  county,  some  200  feet  above  the 
Scioto,  more  than  100  of  these  relics  were  discovered.  No  other 
worked  objects  could  be  found;  although  there  are  two  small 
mounds  which  are  described  on  page  375.  Near  this  place 
is  a  hill  known  as  Jasper  Knob  having  an  elevation  above  the 
water  of  considerably  more  than  600  feet.  On  its  summit  were 
two  of  these  cup-stones,  but  diligent  search  failed  to  reveal  any- 
thing else  of  artificial  character.  Near  Chillicothe,  on  a  point 
overlooking  Paint  Creek  valley,  several  large  irregular  blocks 
of  sandstone  are  firmly  imbedded  in  the  earth ;  each  has  one 
or  more  cups  on  its  exposed  surface.  On  a  hill  400  feet  high,  two 
miles  from  this,  whose  top  is  liberally  dotted  with  slabs  and 
large  fragments  of  sandstone,  an  hour's  search  disclosed  25 
or  30  with  these  indentations.  In  none  of  these  places  is  there 
any  other  apparent  evidence  of  occupation.  The  soil  is  mostly 
clay  and  might  almost  be  called  sterile  when  compared  with 
the  alluvial  loam  of  the  bottom-lands  within  a  few  hundred 
yards;  while  no  water  is  to  be  had  nearer  than  the  streams  at 
the  foot  of  the  hills. 

Two  miles  below  Pittsburg  are  the  remains  of  two  Indian  villages 
about  one  mile  apart.  The  great  number  of  cupped  or  pitted  stones  found 
there  has  been  remarkable.  They  are  principally  water-worn  boulders 
taken  from  the  river,  measuring  from  six  to  eighteen  inches  in  diameter; 
besides  several  large,  fixed  boulders  containing  ten  to  fifteen  cups  on 
them,  averaging  half  the  size  of  a  hen's  egg. —  Harper,  75. 

A  mound  fifty  feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet  high,  at  the  entrance 
of  an  enclosure  near  Charleston,  West  Virginia,  had  the  top  "strewn 
with  fragments  of  flat  rocks,  most  of  which  were  marked  with  one  or 
more  small,  artificial,  cup-shaped  depressions."  —  Burial  Mounds,  55. 


Wide  Range  in  Form  of  Cup-stones.  541 

They  are  almost  invariably  of  reddish  sandstone,  of  varying- 
texture,  from  a  few  ounces  to  thirty  pounds  in  weight.  The 
holes  are  from  one  to  twenty-five  in  number,  of  various  sizes  even 
in  the  same  stone,  and  follow  the  natural  contour  of  the  surface 
although  it  may  be  quite  rough;  the  stone  is  never  dressed  or 
flattened  to  bring  the  cups  to  a  level;  none  show  any  marks 
of  work  but  are  simply  blocks  or  slabs  left  in  their  natural 
state.  The  smaller  ones  with  one  cup  pass  into  the  pitted  stones. 
Flat  or  thin  pieces  nearly  always  have  cups  on  both  sides,  while 
blocks  or  thick  slabs  have  them  on  one  side  only.     Many  of  the 


Figure  164  —  Cup-Stone. 

holes  are  roughly  pecked  in,  but  the  larger  ones  are  usually 
quite  smooth,  as  if  ground  out,  and  almost  complete  hemispheres. 
They  range  from  a  pit  only  started  or  going  scarcely  beyond  the 
surface  to  one  two  inches  in  diameter.  Occasionally  at  the  bottom 
of  a  large  cup  there  is  a  small  secondary  hole  as  though  made 
by  a  flint  drill.     A  fine  example  is  shown  in  figure  164. 

Conjecture  and  theory  have  had  full  sway  in  regard  to  the 
uses  of  these  objects;  but  the  question  is  apparently  far  from 
a  solution. 

"  So  far  as  the  series  gathered  in  New  Jersey  bears  upon  this 
matter,  it  may  be  stated  that  nearly  one  hundred  were  found  where  the 
ground  was  literally  covered  with  fragments  of  pottery  and  steatite  pots, 
mixed  with  charcoal  and  other  evidences  of  fire.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  purpose  of  these  pitted  stones,  it  is  evident  that  they  were 
closely  connected  with  household,  and  probably,  culinary  occupations." 
—  Abbott,  190. 


542  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  At  an  arrow-making  shop  near  the  mouth  of  the  Saline  river  in 
Illinois  was  a  great  number  of  cup-stones.  With  pick  and  spade  I  soon 
exposed  a  group  or  pile  of  over  twenty,  and  with  them  a  number  of 
slabs  of  the  same  sandstone  that  showed  marks  of  having  been  used 
as  rub  or  grindstones,  all  made  from  mill-stone  grit.  Further  research 
developed  a  number  of  such  piles,  some  having  only  the  cup-like  indenta- 
tions, others  having  a  center  depression  of  four  to  six  inches  in  diameter, 
similar  to  the  rude  mortars  with  the  cups  irregularly  arranged  around 
them.  Many  were  scattered  over  the  entire  flaking  ground;  they  varied 
in  size  from  large  pebbles  with  a  single  cup  on  opposite  sides  up  to  mas- 
sive slabs,  having  eight  and  ten  cups  on  a  side.  So  many  being  found 
where  the  manufacturing  of  stone  implements  has  been  so  extensively 
carried  on  is  suggestive  to  a  mechanic  that  they  were  either  made  on 
the  ground  and  kept  on  hand  for  sale,  or  that  they  were  tools  in  some 
way  used  in  their  works.  That  they  were  new  can  hardly  be  the  case, 
for  very  frequently  one  cup  has  been  worn  into  another.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Saline  river,  above  a  bluff,  is  another  flaking  place  or  flint  shop. 
Within  a  space  of  two  acres  and  not  over  an  hour's  tramp,  on  the  fresh- 
plowed  earth,  I  found  scattered  over  twenty  cup-stones.  This  is  another 
instance  of  their  having  been  left  among  the  offal  of  a  workshop. 
Among  near-by  earthworks,  where  the  densest  original  population  have 
left  their  marks,  I  expected  to  find  the  cup-stones.  The  single-pit  and 
indented  hammer-stones  were  plenty,  and  also  rude  mortars,  but  the 
cup-stones  were  comparatively  few.  An  aged  farmer  tells  me  that  the 
Indians  here,  in  his  boyhood,  used  the  single-pit  nut-stones,  but  they 
did  not  know  anything  about  the  cup-stones.  At  that  time,  too,  a 
Pacific  whaler  told  him  that  he  once  saw  these  stones  in  daily  use  in 
Patagonia.  The  women  fitted  a  piece  of  raw  hide  into  each  hole,  set  a 
spindle  in  it  with  enough  grease  to  make  it  run  slick,  and  then  clustered 
around  the  stone  and  spun  their  yarn."  —  Sellers,  Chipping,  886,  con- 
densed. 

The  spindle  theory  has  been  advanced  by  others ;  among 
them  a  writer  in  the  "Ohio  Centennial  Report,"  who  figures  an 
ordinary  cup-stone  with  ten  holes  as  a  "spindle  foot  rest"  with 
the  explanation, 

"  I  conceive  that  the  universal  cup-shaped  cavities,  which  are  seen 
on  small  stones  throughout  the  Ohio  Valley,  were  formed  by  the  lower 
ends  of  such  spindles."  —  Matson,  135. 

Whittlesey,  noting  the  fact  that  hundreds  are  found  through- 
out northern  Ohio,  holds  the  same  belief. 

How  several  women  could  cluster  within  easy  reach  of 
one  small  stone,  or  how  so  many  spindles  could  be  worked  in 
so  small  a  space  without  confusion  or  entanglement  of  the 
separate  threads,  does  not  appear.  Other  suggestions  are  to  the 
effect  that  the  holes  were  used  as  "sockets  for  fire  drills  or  mortars 


Supposed  Uses  of  Cup-stones.  543 

for  grinding  pigment"  (Dawson,  112)  ;  and  for  steadying  or  sup- 
porting the  shafts  of  drills  used  in  perforating  stone  or  other  mate- 
rial. The  same  objection  applies  to  all ;  a  single  pit, in  a  stone  large 
enough  to  remain  steady  while  the  work  was  going  on,  could 
be  used  for  any  of  the  above  purposes;  but  when  several  are  in 
such  close  array  that  the  partitions  between  them  are  worn 
away,  some  other  interpretation  is  necessary.  Occasionally  a 
cup  is  found  having  more  or  less  of  a  polish,  which  may  be  due 
to  the  rotation  of  some  tool  supported  in  it ;  but  these  are  rare. 
The  most  common  explanation  in  regard  to  cup-stones  is 
that  they  were  used  to  crack  nuts  on.  Because  they  occur 
in  the  southern  States  in  considerable  numbers  where  nut-bearing 
trees  now  flourish,  Jones  concludes  them  to  be  the  "  morters  " 
referred  to  by  Hariot.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  something 
quite  different  is  meant  by  that  writer;  and,  further,  we  have 
no  warrant  for  assuming  that  these  trees  stood  here  when  the 
stones  were  in  use,  or  even  that  the  distribution  of  timber  is 
now  what  it  was  some  centuries  ago. 

Rau  thinks  they  may  have  been  used  for  this  purpose,  as  the  cavities 
are  deep  enough  to  hold  a  nut  in  place.  He  cites  in  evidence  a  stone 
found  in  a  cabin  buried  14  feet  deep  in  an  Irish  bog  —  a  slab  three  feet 
long  and  14  inches  thick,  with  one  hole  three-fourths  of  an  inch  deep  in 
its  surface  and  hazel-nut  shells  scattered  about  it!  —  Rau,  Cup- stones,  142. 

Read  suggests  that  the  pits  were  made  hollow  at  first  with  a  rude 
pick,  so  that  a  nut  would  not  slip  and  allow  the  finger  to  be  struck. — 
Read,   Cup-stones,   14. 

This  supposition  as  to  their  purpose,  which  is  so  prevalent 
that  the  name  "nut-stone"  is  frequently  applied  to  them,  has 
its  sole  foundation  in  statements  by  some  early  writers. 

"  At  the  fall  of  the  leaf,  they  gather  a  great  number  of  hiccory- 
nuts,  which  they  pound  with  a  round  stone,  upon  a  stone,  thick  and 
hollowed  for  the  purpose.  When  they  are  beat  fine  enough,  they  mix 
them  with  cold  water,  in  a  clay  bason,  where  the  shells  subside.  The  other 
part  is  an  oily,  tough,  thick,  white  substance,  called  by  the  traders 
hiccory  milk,  and  by  the  Indians  the  flesh  or  fat  of  the  hiccory-nuts, 
with  which  they  eat  their  bread."  —  Adair,  409. 

"Besides  their  eating  of  them  ["walnuts,"  by  which  he  means  hickory 
nuts]  after  our  ordinarie  manner,  they  break  them  with  stones,  and  pound 
them  in  morters  with  water  to  make  a  milk  which  they  use  to  put  into 
some  sort  of  their  spoonmeate ;  also  among  their  sodde  wheat,  peaze, 
beanes,  and  pompions  which  maketh  them  have  a  far  more  pleasant  taste." 
—  Hariot;  quoted  by  Jones,  317. 


644  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  The  [Delaware]  Indians  gather  a  great  quantity  of  sweet  hiccory 
nuts,  which  grow  in  great  plenty  in  some  years,  and  not  only  eat  them 
raw,  but  extract  a  milky  juice  from  them,  which  tastes  well  and  is- 
nourishing.  Sometimes  they  extract  an  oil,  by  first  roasting  the  nut  in 
the  shell  under  pot-ashes,  and  pounding  them  to  a  fine  mash,  which  they 
boil  in  water.  The  oil  swimming  on  the  surface  is  skimmed  off  and  used 
in  their  cooking."  —  Loskiel,  71. 

"  The  Creeks  store  up  the  shell-barked  hiccory  nuts  in  their  towns. 
I  have  seen  above  an  hundred  bushels  of  these  nuts  belonging  to  one 
family.  They  pound  them  to  pieces  and  then  cast  them  into  boiling 
water,  which,  after  passing  through  fine  strainers,  preserves  the  most 
oily  part  of  the  liquid :  this  they  call  by  a  name  which  signifies  hiccory 
milk ;  it  is  as  sweet  and  rich  as  fresh  cream,  and  is  an  ingredient  in 
most  of  their  cookery,  especially  homony  and  corn  cakes."  —  Bar- 
trams,  38. 

"They  take  these  nuts  [of  the  white  hickory],  and  break  them  very 
small  betwixt  two  stones,  till  the  shells  and  kernels  are  indifferent 
small;  and  this  powder  you  are  presented  withal  in  their  cabins,  in 
little  wooden  dishes ;  the  kernel  dissolves  in  your  mouth,  and  the  shell 
is  spit  out.  Another  dish  is  the  soup  which  they  make  of  these  nuts, 
beaten,  and  put  into  venison  broth,  which  dissolves  the  nut  and  thickens, 
whilst  the  shell  precipitates  and  remains  at  the  bottom.  This  broth 
tastes  very  rich."  —  Lawson,  164. 

"  We  found  here  good  store  of  chinkapin  nuts,  which  they 
gather  in  winter  great  quantities  of,  drying  them,  so  keep  these  nuts  in 
great  baskets  for  their  use.  Likewise  hickerie  nuts,  which  they  beat 
betwixt  two  great  stones,  then  sift  them,  so  thicken  their  venison  broth 
therewith,  the  small  shells  precipitating  to  the  bottom  of  the  pot,  whilst 
the  kernel,  in  form  of  flower,  mixes  it  with  the  liquor,  both  of  these 
nuts  made  into  meal  makes  a  curious  soup,  either  with  clear  water  or  in 
any  meat  broth."  —  Lawson,   53. 

Not  one  of  these  statements  seems  to  have  any  reference  to 
a  cup-stone.  Two  of  them  describe  a  mortar  with  a  round  pestle, 
while  the  others  say  nothing  about  any  particular  form  of  stone ; 
yet  they  have  been  alluded  to  time  and  again  as  proof  of  the 
nut-stone  theory.  There  would  be  some  difficulty  in  pounding 
nuts  fine  in  small  holes  half  an  inch  or  more  below  where  the 
pounding  stone  could  reach.  The  shallow  ones  may  have  served 
for  such  a  purpose  and  so  long  as  they  were  on  the  same  piane 
might  be  thus  utilized,  as  a  number  of  nuts  could  be  cracked 
with  one  blow  of  a  flat  stone  and  thrown  into  a  receptacle;  but 
there  would  be  no  economy  of  time  or  work  in  this  method, 
as  only  a  portion  of  the  shell  could  be  broken,  and  many  would 
have  to  be  cracked  a  second  time.     At  any  rate,  it  is  difficult 


Stone  Hammers,  or  Chib-heads.  545 

to  understand  why  an  Indian  or  any  one  else  should  want  to 
make  a  large  number  of  holes  in  a  great  many  stones  for  such 
purpose.  Very  few  of  these  stones  have  depressions  that  will 
allow  the  nut  to  stand  on  end,  and  it  would  be  strange  that  any 
one  should  not  learn  with  so  much  experience  that  it  ought  never 
to  be  laid  on  the  flat  side  in  cracking,  unless  it  is  the  intention 
to  crush  the  kernel  and  shell  together;  which  could  not  be  done 
in  these  ''  cups  "  anyhow. 

It  has  recently  been  suggested  that  the  greater  number  of 
such  relics,  namely,  the  irregular  fragments  of  stone  with  cups 
at  varying  intervals  and  different  levels,  even  on  opposite  sides, 
were  pecked  out  for  the  purpose  of  grinding  off  the  ends  of  sticks 
to  a  convex  form,  for  use  in  making  fire  by  twirling  rapidly. 
When  a  hole  became  too  large,  as  it  soon  would,  another  was 
started  (Dellenbaugh).  No  theory  yet  advanced,  however,  will 
account  for  the  boulder  of  sandstone  weighing  at  least  half  a  ton, 
found  near  fronton,  which  contains  more  than  lOO  cups  scattered 
all  over  it.  In  order  that  the  reader  may  take  his  turn  in  guess- 
ing at  some  possible  motive  for  contriving  such  an  object,  it  is 
shown  in  figure  165   (N.  A.  Cont.  V.,  figure  42). 

HAMMERSTONES. 

Hammers  or  hammerstones  show  every  stage  of  work,  from 
the  ordinary  pebble  or  fragment,  with  its  surface  scarcely  altered, 
to  the  highly  polished  round  or  ovoid  ''  ball '',  and  the  grooved 
form  to  which  a  withe  is  attached  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
handle  of  an  ax  or  a  celt.  They  are  usually  of  the  hardest 
available  material,  and  seem  to  be  of  more  frequent  occurrence 
in  the  northern  districts  than  in  the  southern  states,  though 
found  everywhere.  Used  in  their  earlier  stages  merely  as  tools 
with  which  to  fashion  other  implements,  they  were  assigned 
to  specific  purposes  when  brought  to  a  better  finish.  The  types 
are  presented  in  figure  166. 

The  Sioux  used  an  oval  stone  with  a  piece  of  rawhide  covering  all 
but  the  point  and  attaching  it  to  a  withe  handle. —  Dodge:  Indians,  Plate 
I,  Figure  3. 

"  The  poggamoggon  [of  the  Ojibwa  and  Shoshonee]  is  an  instru- 
ment, consisting  of  a  handle  twenty-two  inches  long,  made  of  wood, 
covered  with  dressed  leather  about  the  size  of  a  whip  handle;  at  one  end 
is  a  thong  of  about  two  inches  in  length,  which  is  tied  to  a  round  stone 
weighing  two  pounds  and  held  in  a  cover  of  leather;  at  the  other  end  is  a 
loop  of  the  same  material,  which  is  passed  around  the  wrist,  so  as  to  se-- 
35 


546 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


I^igure  165  — Large  Boulder,  with  Numerous  "Cups." 


Stone  Hammers,  or  Club-heads,  ^47 


Figure   166  -  Hammers,    Sinkers,    or    Club-heads:    Round   and   Grooved. 


648  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

cure  the  hold  of  the  instrument,  with  which  they  strike  a  very  severe 
hlow."  — L.  &  C,  I,  425. 

"  The  war-club  of  the  Apache  was  an  admirable  weapon ;  a  stone  of 
suitable  size  and  shape  was  sewed  up  in  [the  skin  of]  a  cow's  tail ;  then  a 
space  of  four  inches  was  left  in  the  tail,  and  lastly,  a  round  stick  was 
sewed  in  to  give  strength  and  rigidity  and  to  serve  as  a  handle.  The  hair 
was  left  pendant,  as  it  kept  the  hand  from  losing  its  hold  when  covered 
with  human  blood."  —  Bourke,  Vesper,  59. 

Rounded  stones  are  said  to  have  been  used  by  the  California 
Indians  for  bolas  (Powers,  52),  though  it  is  more  probable  that 
they  were  slung  shots,  as  there  is  no  evidence  that  our  Indians  ever 
used  anything  in  the  nature  of  bolas  like  those  of  the  Eskimo  and 
Patagonians.  Elaborately  carved  round  stones,  mounted  in 
handles  in  clubs,  are  known  to  have  been  used  by  the  Indians 
of  Queen  Charlotte's  Island  for  killing  fish  (Dawson,  119),  and 
the  other  northwestern  Indians  have  been  seen  to  use  a  round 
stone  inclosed  in  a  net  and  used  as  a  sinker  (Stevens,  95).  Car- 
ver observed  that  the  southwestern  Indians  used  as  a  slung  shot 
a  curiously  worked  stone  with  a  string  a  yard  and  a  half  long 
tied  to  it,  the  other  end  being  tied  to  the  arm  above  the  elbow. — 
Carver,  191. 

"  Oval  stones,  with  grooves  around  their  greatest  circumference,  were 
also  secured  in  the  head  of  war-clubs."  —  Iroquois,  359. 

MORTARS. 

Indian  mortars  are  nearly  always  of  sandstone  of  varying 
degrees  of  fineness.  As  is  the  case  with  cupped  stones,  when  made 
of  slabs,  both  sides  have  been  worked;  when  of  rough  blocks, 
only  one. 

The  Senecas  and  Cayugas  used  wooden  mortars  in  which 
to  pound  the  corn  after  it  was  hulled  (Regents :  II,  16.)  ;  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  long  pestles  of  soft  stone  were  used  with  wooden 
mortars,  though  some  are  not  well  adapted  to  this  use.  The  Iro- 
quois women  pounded  in  stone  mortars  the  stony  material  used  in 
tempering  the  clay  for  their  pottery.  (Schoolcraft,  Iroquois,  239.) 
The  California  Indians  made  mortars  by  knocking  a  segment  off 
a  bowlder,  making  a  fliat  surface,  and  working  out  with  a  ham- 
mer and  chisel  (Schumaker,  264)  ;  while  the  tribes  of  the  in- 
terior worked  directly  from  the  surface  of  a  suitable  rock.  The 
Yokuts,  according  to  Powers,  use  tolerably  well  made  stone 
mortars,  and  sometimes  place  a  basket-like  arrangement  around 
the  top  to  prevent  the  acorns  from  flying  out.  —  Powers,  377. 


Large  Perforated  and  Grooved  Stones.  549 


SINKERS  AND  LARGE  PERFORATED  STONES. 

Flat  stones  with  notched  edges  are  found  along  water  courses  in  such 
situations  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  their  use  as  sinkers  (Abbott,  Chap. 
"28);  they  were  attached  to  grapevines  and  dragged  on  the  bottom  of 
■streams  to  frighten  fish  into  nets  and  traps. —  Jones,  338. 

"  The  Indians  have  the  art  of  catching  fish  in  large  crails,  made  with 
•canes  and  hiccory  splints,  tapering  to  a  point.  They  lay  these  at  a  fall  of 
water,  where  stones  are  placed  in  two  sloping  lines  from  each  bank,  till 
they  meet  together  in  the  middle  of  the  rapid  stream,  where  the  entangled 
fish  are  soon  drowned.  Above  such  a  place,  I  have  known  them  to  fas- 
ten a  wreath  of  long  grape  vines  together,  to  reach  across  the  river,  with 
stones  fastened  at  proper  distances  to  rake  the  bottom ;  they  will  swim  a 
mile  with  it  whooping  and  plunging  all  the  way,  driving  the  fish  before 
them  into  their  large  cane  pots."  —  Adair,  403, 

While  most  grooved  round  stones  were  club  heads  and 
:slung  shots  or  hammers,  many  were  used  as  sinkers.  Small 
.stones  of  this  form  are  used  by  Greenland  fishermen  as  sinkers 
(Nilsson,  25)  ;  and  by  their  aid  it  is  said, 

"  The  Indians  of  the  Great  Lakes  formerly  caught  fish  in  nets  when 
the  water  was  frozen  over.  They  would  cut  a  series  of  holes  in  the  ice, 
and  pass  one  end  of  a  rope  from  one  to  another  by  means  of  a  pole  until 
it  was  carried  as  far  as  desired.  The  rope  was  then  attached  to  a  net,  and 
■drawn  back  to  the  starting  point.  Sinkers  of  stone,  of  various  sizes,  were 
attached  to  different  parts  of  the  net,  to  hold  it  vertical  in  the  water.  The 
iiSh,  in  attempting  to  pass  through,  would  be  caught  in  the  meshes  by  their 
;gills."  —  Thatcher,  I,  69. 

Perforated  stones  seem  to  have  been  employed  for  a  variety 
of  purposes  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  They  were  used  by  the 
-southern  Indians  to  drag  along  the  bottom  of  streams  and 
frighten  fish  into  nets  and  traps  (Jones,  338).  Four  disks  4  to 
5 J  inches  in  diameter,  with  handles  from  13  to  17  inches  long, 
were  found  in  a  cave  at  Los  Angeles,  California  (Amer.  Nat., 
XX,  574),  and  objects  of  this  character  were  used  by  the  Santa 
Barbara  Indians  as  weights  for  wooden  spades  (Schumacher, 
265,  also  in  Hayden,  1877,  p.  41).  Many  perforated  stones  are 
found  in  the  eastern  States,  close  to  rivers  and  on  shores  in  such 
positions  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  their  use  as  sinkers  (Abbott, 
244).  Similar  stones  were  used  as  sinkers  by  the  Scandinavians 
in  comparatively  recent  times ;  by  the  Bechuanas  for  grinding 
:grasshoppers,  spiders,  etc.,  and  also  as  weights  for  digging  sticks ; 
.by  some  savages  in  the  Pacific  islands  as  clubs ;  by  the  Icelanders 


650  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 

for  breaking  up  salted  fish  (Stevens,  95).  They  were  used  by 
the  Iroquois  as  weights  for  fire  drills  (Iroquois,  381);  by  the 
Eskimo  as  clubs,  having  a  rawhide  handle  secured  by  a  knot 
(Stevens,  499).  The  natives  of  Africa  use  them  as  a  sort  of  hoe, 
to  scrape  the  earth  away  from  roots;  as  weapons;  and  to  give 
additional  weight  to  digging-sticks  (Dale  I,  347;  La3^ard,  I,  ap- 
pendix, c;  Griesbach,  I,  cliv. ;  Gooch,  XI,  128).  Gooch  also  says 
they  were  utilized  as  club  heads  by  the  predecessors  of  the  Bush- 
men, who  now  use  them  as  diggers.  They  were  thrown  with  a 
stick  by  the  Peruvian  Indians,  somewhat  as  a  stone  is  thrown 
from  a  sling.  Disk-shaped  and  cylindrical  throwing  stones,  per- 
forated for  the  stick,  are  found  among  the  Swiss  Lake  dwellings 
(Knight,  232).  Evans  thinks  they  were  intended  mostly  for 
hammers  or  clubs,  as  they  are  hard  and  battered  on  the  edges; 
sinkers  would  be  of  softer  stone. — Evans,  194. 

"  Among  the  Indians  of  southern  California,  where  perforated  stones 
are  very  numerous,  these  relics  were  formerly  put  to  three  uses :  —  First, 
as  weights  to  digging-sticks ;  second,  as  gaming  implements ;  third,  as  dies 
for  fashioning  tubes,  pipes  and,  similar  cylindrical  objects..  The  es- 
pecial function  of  the  digging-stick  was  to  dig  a  kind  of  onion-like  root 
called  '  cihon.'  When  in  use  the  weight  was  slipped  over  the  handle  till 
it  rested  about  the  middle  of  the  stick  like  a  collar;  its  sole  function  was 
evidently  to  give  weight  to  the  pointed  stick  and  thus  to  increase  its  ef- 
fectiveness. 

"  A  California  Indian  said  some  of  the  perforated  disks  of  hard  stone 
were  made  for  the  express  purpose  of  fashioning  pipes.  The  end  of  the 
stone  to  be  fashioned  was  inserted  into  the  hole  of  a  perforated  stone  and 
turned  by  hand  until  reduced  to  the  proper  shape.  Another  possible  use  for 
such  stones,  is  for  ceremonial  purposes,  which  is  not  at  all  probable  except 
where  they  were  also  used  as  weapons,  but  may  have  been  the  purpose  of 
carefully  finished,  symmetrical  specimens,  many  of  which  still  show  traces 
of  coloring  matter."  —  Henshaw,  Rings,  7,  et  seq.,  condensed. 

Small  perforated  disks  were  also  used  as  weights  for 
spindles.  Very  delicate  fabrics  are  possible  by  means  of  such 
rude  apparatus,  though  the  American  Indian  never  passed  beyond 
the  stage  of  co-arse  cloth. 

"  A  slender  piece  of  bamboo,"  as  a  spindle ;  "  a  little  ball  of  unbaked' 
clay,"  as  a  whorl  or  weight ;  and  "  a  fragment  of  shell "  as  a  rest  for  the 
spindle  —  are  all  the  appliances  a  Hindoo  woman  needs  for  making  the 
thread  for  fabrics  such  as  "  with  all  our  machinery  and  wondrous  appli- 
ances we  have  hitherto  been   unable  to  produce."  —  Mitchell,   13. 

The  fire-shaft  had  "  a  small  wheel  set  upon  the  lower  part  to  give  it 
momentum."  —  Iroquois,  381. 


Disks:  the  Game  of  Chung-kee.  551 


DISCOIDAL   STONES. 

There  are  numerous  references  to  discoidal  stones  by  various 
writers,  but  a  majority  of  the  objects  do  not  fall  under  any 
explanation  that  has  so  far  been  given.  They  are  most  plentiful 
in  the  region  traversed  by  the  lower  ranges  of  the  Appalachians, 
the  finest  specimens  being  found  there.  They  are  also  more  or  less 
numerous  throughout  the  central  Mississippi  valley  and  eastward. 

"  Throughout  all  the  river  valleys,  east  of  the  Alleghany  mountains,, 
these  perforated  ceremonial  objects  are  found  in  about  equal  abundance. 
*  *  wherever  villages  stood,  we  may  confidently  expect  to  find  frag- 
ments, at  least,  of  these  pretty  objects.  *  *  In  New  England  they  are 
by  no  means  uncommon.  *  *  Throughout  New  York,  they  are  of  com- 
mon occurrence."  From  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  comes  "  a  very  fine 
series  of  these  implements,  mostly  made  of  Potsdam  slates.  They  are  in 
the  various  stages  of  manufacture,  and  show  that  the  slate  was  first 
coarsely  chipped,  then  pecked  or  more  delicately  chipped  until  the  out- 
line was  secured;  after  which  they  were  carefully  polished,  and  finally  per- 
forated. This  was  done  not  only  with  a  hollow  reed,  but  sometimes  with 
a  solid  stone  drill.  It  would  seem  from  their  unusual  abundance  in  some- 
portions  of  the  Susquehanna  river  valley,  that  many  of  them  were  thus. 
made  for  barter  with  other  tribes  or  communities."  —  Abbott,  350. 

Many  were  taken  from  a  mound  at  Hopewell's.  The 
description  indicates  a  micaceous  steatite  or  chlorite — "  it  cuts 
witho'Ut  difficulty  and  receives  a  very  high  polish  ".  Some  were 
solid,  like  short  sections  of  a  cylinder;  others  were  perforated^ 
and  some  had  a  flange  around  the  margin,  giving  them  a  resem- 
blance to  small  pulley- wheels  (S.  &  D.,  287).  They  seem  tO' 
have  been  confined  to  one  mound  of  this  group. 

Certain  forms  were  much  in  vogue  in  a  sport  which  seems 
to  have  been  indulged  in  over  much  of  the  United  States. 

"  The  warriors  [of  the  southern  States]  have  another  favorite  game,, 
called  chungke.  *  *  They  have  near  their  state  house,  a  square  piece 
of  ground  well  cleaned,  and  fine  sand  is  carefully  strewed  over  it,  when 
requisite,  to  promote  a  swifter  motion  to  what  they  throw  along  the  sur- 
face. Only  one,  or  two  on  a  side,  play  at  this  ancient  game.  They  have 
a  stone  about  two  fingers  broad  at  the  edge,  and  two  spans  around ;  each 
party  has  a  pole  of  about  eight  feet  long,  smooth,  and  tapering  at  each  end, 
the  points  flat.  They  set  off  abreast  of  each  other,  at  six  yards  from  the 
end  of  the  play  ground ;  then  one  of  them  hurls  the  stone  on  its  edge,  in 
as  direct  a  line  ^s  he  can,  a  considerable  distance  toward  the  other  end 
of  the  square ;  when  they  have  run  a  few  yards,  each  darts  his  pole 
anointed  with  bear's  oil,  with  a  proper  force,  as  near  as  he  can  guess  in 


552  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

proportion  to  the  motion  of  the  stone,  that  the  end  may  lie  close  to  the 
end  of  the  stone  —  when  this  is  the  case,  the  person  counts  two  of  the 
game,  and,  in  proportion  of  the  nearness  of  the  poles  to  the  mark,  one  is 
counted,  unless  by  measuring,  both  are  found  to  be  at  an  equal  distance 
from  the  stone.  *  *  The  hurling  stones  they  use  at  present,  were  time 
immemorial  rubbed  smooth  on  the  rocks,  and  with  prodigious  labor ;  they 
are  kept  with  the  strictest  religious  care,  from  one  generation  to  another, 
and  are  exempted  from  being  buried  with  the  dead.  They  belong  to  the 
town   where  they  are  used  and  are  carefully  preserved."  —  Adair,  401. 

The  Indians  of  North  Carolina  were  much  addicted  to  a 
sport  called  "  chenco  ",  played  with  a  staff  and  a  bowl  made 
with  stone  (Lawson,  98).  The  same  kind  of  game  was,  or  still 
is,  played  with  hoops  or  rings  of  wood  or  rawhide  by  the  Iro- 
quois (Iroquois,  299),  the  Pawnees  (Irving,  J.  T.,  II,  142),  the 
Apaches  (Cremony,  302),  the  Navajo  (Matthews,  W.,  814), 
the  Mohave  (Pac.  Ry.,  III.,  114),  and  the  Omaha  (Long,  Rock- 
ies I,  205)  ;  also,  with  the  rings  of  stone,  by  the  Arikara  (Brack- 
•enridge,  256)  and  other  tribes. 

The  Pawnee  "  ring  game  "  is  played  with  a  hoop  of  rawhide  and  a 
spear  about  five  feet  long;  the  game  is  the  same  as  chung-kee,  the  object 
being  to  send  the  spear  through  a  hole  in  the  ring. —  Grinnell,  21,  et  seq. 

At  the  Mandan  village  "  a  space  of  about  fifty  yards,  was  covered 
with  timbers  smoothed  and  joined  so  as  to  be  as  level  as  the  floor  of  one 
of  our  houses,  with  a  battery  at  the  end  to  stop  the  rings;  these  rings 
were  of  claystone  and  flat  like  the  chequers  for  drafts,  and  the  sticks  were 
about  four  feet  long,  with  two  short  pieces  at  one  end  in  the  form  of  a 
mace,  so  fixed  that  the  whole  will  slide  along  the  board.  Two  men  fix 
themselves  at  one  end,  each  provided  with  a  stick,  and  one  of  them  with 
a  ring;  they  run  along  the  board,  and  about  half  way  slide  the  sticks 
after  the  ring."  —  L.  &  C,  I,  144. 

Among  the  Mandans  "  this  game  is  decidedly  their  favorite  amuse- 
ment. The  play  commences  with  two  (one  from  each  party),  who  start  off 
upon  a  trot  abreast  of  each  other,  and  one  of  them  rolls  in  advance  of 
them,  on  the  pavement  [of  hard,  smooth  clay],  a  little  ring  of  two  or  three 
inches  in  diameter,  cut  out  of  a  stone ;  and  each  one  follows  it  up  with  his 
'  tchung-kee  '  (a  stick  of  six  feet  in  length,  with  little  bits  of  leather  pro- 
jecting from  its  sides  of  an  inch  or  more  in  length),  which  he  throws  be- 
fore him  as  he  runs,  sliding  it  along  upon  the  ground  after  the  ring,  en- 
deavoring to  place  it  in  such  a  position  when  it  stops,  that  the  ring  may 
fall  upon  it,  and  receive  one  of  the  little  projections  of  leather  through 
it,  which  counts  for  game."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  132. 

"  Rev.  J.  B.  Finley  *  *  states  that,  "  among  the  tribes  with  which 
he  was  acquainted,  stones  identical  with  those  above  described  [disks] 
were  much  used  in  a  popular  game  resembling  the  modern  games  of  *  ten 


Disks :   Great  Diversity  in  Form  and  Finish.  653 

pins.'  The  form  of  the  stones  suggests  the  manner  in  which  they  were 
held  or  thrown,  or  rather  rolled.  The  concave  sides  received  the  thumb 
and  second  finger,  the  forefinger  clasping  the  periphery."  —  S.  &  D., 
223,  note. 

It  is  further  described  by  Du  Pratz. 

While  many  may  have  been  used  for  the  game  of  "  chung- 
kee  ",  the  evident  unfitness  for  this  use  of  most  discoidals  requires 
some  other  explanation  as  to  their  purpose. 

"  It  is  often  the  case  that  these  stones  are  found  *  *  saturated,  or 
heavily  coated,  with  oily  pigment,  accumulated  apparently  by  long  con- 
tact with  animal  fat.  *  *  This  fact,  together  with  their  great  numbers, 
their  wide  distribution,  their  various  dimensions,  forms,  and  degrees  of 
fine  finish,  and  their  presence  in  old  village  sites  and  camp  refuse,  strongly 
suggest  the  probability  of  their  economic  use  as  domestic  implements."  — 
Snyder:  Bicaves,  167. 

The  Indians  of  southern  California,  in  manufacturing  pot- 
tery, make  the  clay  compact  and  smooth  by  holding  a  round  and 
smooth  stone  against  the  inside  (Schumacher,  Pea.  Mus.,  XII, 
522).  The  Fijians,  in  making  pottery,  use  a  small,  round,  flat 
stone  to  shape  the  inside  (Lubbock,  648)  ;  while  the  Indians  of 
Guiana  use  ancient  axes  or  smooth  stones  for  polishing  the  clay 
in  making  their  vessels  (Im  Thurn,  II,  647).  Some  disks  were 
used  as  pestles,  hammers  or  mullers ;  a  thick  one  with  pitted  ends 
was  found  in  a  mortar  (Evans,  218  and  22y).  Under  the  head 
■of  pestles  and  perforated  stones  further  reference  will  be  found 
that  may  apply  as  well  to  some  forms  of  these  implements. 

No  kind  of  relic  is  more  difificult  to  classify.  From  the 
smooth,  symmetrical,  highly  polished  "chung-kee"  stones  they 
gradually  merge  into  mullers,  pestles,  pitted  stones,  polishers, 
hammers,  (for  any  or  all  of  which  purposes  they  may  have  been 
used  in  the  course  of  their  manufacture),  ornaments,  and  the 
ordinary  sinker  or  club-head,  so  that  no  dividing  line  is  possible. 
Theories  constructed  on  a  basis  of  their  use  may  he  far  from 
correct. 

They  present  various  forms  and  degrees  of  finish ;  many  have 
the  natural  surface  on  both  sides  with  the  edge  worked  off  by 
grinding  or  pecking,  the  latter  being  produced  probably  by  use  as 
a  hammer ;  the  sides  may  be  ground  down  while  the  edge  remains 
untouched ;  or  the  sides  may  be  pecked  and  the  edge  ground, 
being  probably  of  a  thick  pebble  originally.  Some  of  the  finer 
grades,  as  chalcedony  and  quartz,  that  have  received  the  highest 


554  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

finish,  appear  to  have  had  all  the  work  done  by  grinding  or  rub- 
bing, as  even  those  only  slightly  worked  bear  no  signs  of  ham- 
mering or  pecking.  When  of  the  harder  materials  they  are  gen- 
erally made  of  water-worn  pebbles  as  near  the  desired  form 
as  can  be  found ;  in  fact,  some  specimens  which  are  in  their  natural 
state,  entirely  unworked,  require  a  very  close  examination  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  others  whose  surface  has  been  artificially 
produced.  In  some  jasper  conglomerates  from  Arkansas,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  regular  series  from  a  roughly  chipped  disk  to 
one  of  the  highest  polish  and  symmetry.  The  larger  ones  of 
quartz,  particularly  those  with  concavities  in  the  sides,  must 
have  been  patiently  wrought  for  years  before  brought  to  their 
present  state.  Many  of  the  smaller  ones,  especially  sandstone, 
seem  to  have  been  designed  for  grinding  or  polishing. 

An  unusually  fine  specimen  is  represented  in  figure  167. 
Other  forms  are  shown  in  figure  168. 

SPUDS. 

It  has  been  a  puzzle  to  archaeologists  to  assign  to  any  class 
the  peculiar  stones  called  "spuds."  They  are  usually  of  a  com- 
paratively soft  material,  carefully  worked  and  polished,  and  bear 
no  marks  of  rough  usage.  On  the  other  hand,  they  seem  too  large 
for  ornament.  Perhaps  their  office  may  have  been  in  some 
ceremony  or  game.  Something  similar  in  form  seems  to  be 
denoted  in  the  folowing  extracts : 

"  In  this  month  (February)  we  began  to  make  sugar.  As  some  of  the 
elm  bark  will  strip  at  this  season,  the  squaws  after  finding  a  tree  that 
would  do,  cut  it  down,  and  with  a  crooked  stick  broad  and  sharp  at  the 
end,  took  the  bark  off  the  tree,  and  of  this  bark,  made  vessels."  —  Col. 
Smith,  36. 

The  Twana  Indians,  who  formerly  lived  at  the  south  end  of  Hood's 
canal,  Washington,  in  barking  logs  used  a  heavy  iron  instrument  about 
three  feet  long,  widened  and  sharpened  at  the  end.  —  Eells,  Myrom ;  Hay- 
den,  1881. 

The  tanbark  workers  of  our  day  use  an  instrument  of  some- 
what similar  form.  The  ordinary  spud  is  too  weak  to  endure 
such  usage,  though  it  is  claimed  by  old  people  living  in  the 
Shenandoah  valley,  Virginia,  that  in  the  i8th  century  the  Indians 
in  that  locality  used  an  implement  of  this  pattern  for  stripping 
the  bark  from  trees.  The  implement  may  have  been  used  in 
dressing  hides,  the  hole  being  for  attachment  of  a  handle. 


Various  Patterns  of  Discoidals. 


555 


Figure  167. 


Figure  168  —  Discoidal  Stones. 


■556  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

On  a  short,  broad  spud  found  in  Georgia,  "  the  proofs  of  long-con- 
tinued use  are  evident  all  along  the  lower  portion  of  the  edge,  and  for 
fully  two-thirds  of  the  way  up,  on  either  hand,  towards  the  shoulders. 
We  incline  to  the  belief  that  it  was  a  scraper,  and  that  the  hole  drilled 
through  the  lower  part  of  the  handle  was  intended  to  admit  the  insertion  of 
a  buckskin  thong  by  means  of  which  the  implement,  when  grasped  could 
have  been  fastened  around  the  wrist  or  the  back  of  the  hand,  and  thus 
the  steady  and  forcible  use  of  the  tool  greatly  facilitated."  —  Jones,  290. 

No  implements  of  this  class  are  found  in  Ohio;  an  object 
intermediate  between  a  spud  and  a  celt  is  shown  in  figure  169. 


PLUMMETS. 

The  specimens  known  as  plummets  vary  considerably  in 
form,  size,  and  degree  of  finish.  The  general  shape  is  ovoid, 
sometimes  quite  slender,  sometimes  almost  round;  the  ends  may 
be  either  blunt  or  pointed.  They  may  be  grooved  near  the  mid- 
dle or  near  either  the  larger  or  the  smaller  end.  Some  have 
two  grooves,  some  are  only  partially  grooved,  while  others  have 
the  groove  extending  in  the  direction  of  the  longer  axis.  Still 
others  have  only  a  crease,  scarcely  larger  than  a  coarse  thread; 
many  are  drilled  or  perforated;  while  a  few  have  "necks"  or 
slender  prolongations  at  one  end.  All  of  these  features  may 
have  been  intended  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  suspension, 
though  in  some  instances  it  would  have  required  no  little  care  and 
attention  to  prevent  the  pendant  from  hanging  awry. 

A  fine  collection  of  these  objects  is  illustrated  in  figure  170. 

The  designation  of  "plummet"  is  applied  to  them  merely 
from  their  resemblance  to  the  "plumbob"  used  by  carpenters  and 
brick-layers.  It  is  about  as  far  from  describing  their  use  as  any 
name  could  be,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  their  owners 
never  had  anything  to  "plumb." 

"  While  on  the  coast  of  -California,  the  writer  obtained  from  the  In- 
dians a  direct  and  circumstantiar  account  of  their  use.  The  moment  the 
stones  were  shown  to  the  Santa  Barbara  Indians,  and  without  leading 
questions  from  me,  I  was  told  that  were  '  medicine  or  sorcery  stones  '  used 
by  the  medicine  men  in  making  rain,  in  curing  the  sick,  and  in  various 
ceremonies.  The  sorcerer  arranged  twenty  of  the  stones,  the  proper  num- 
ber, in  a  circle,  pushing  them  violently  together,  sprinkling  water  over  the 
whole,  when  smoke  issued  from  them.  At  San  Buenventura  substantially 
the  same  account  was  received.  Here  it  was  said  that  twelve  was  the 
number  required  by  the  medicine-men,  exclusive  of  a  center  stone  of  a  dif- 


spud  and  Plummets. 


65T 


Figure    169  —  Spud-like    Implement, 


Figure  170  —  Plummets. 


•658  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

ierent  character,  a  beach-worn  pebble  of  quartzite,  unworked.  It  was,  as 
I  was  told,  of  peculiar  power  in  rain  making,  and  as  evidence  of  the  power 
inherent  in  it  the  Indian  held  it  for  a  few  moments  tightly  grasped  in  his 
hand,  when  moisture  condensed  by  contact  of  the  moist  hand  with  its 
cool  surface,  was  pointed  to  as  visible  evidence  of  its  rain  making  power. 
■Similar  ceremonies  were  observed  for  curing  the  sick,  bringing  rain,  put- 
ting out  fires  in  the  mountains,  calling  fish  up  the  streams,  when  war  was 
to  be  made,  etc.  Several  other  stones  of  various  shapes  were  shown  to 
me,  to  all  of  which  mysterious  properties  were  assigned.  The  pear-shaped 
"  sinker  '  variety  was  considered  the  most  efficient  in  sorcery.  It  is  by  no 
means  impossible  that  the  original  functions  of  these  stones  may  have 
been  as  sinkers.  In  the  case  of  tribes  which  depended  for  their  livelihood 
mainly  upon  fishing,  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  an  important  imple- 
ment in  constant  use  might  gradually  be  clothed  with  mysterious  powers, 
and  that  success  in  fishing  might  be  attributed  to  its  direct  influence. 
Under  the  idea  that  it  brought  good  luck,  its  owner  might  employ  it,  more 
or  less  exclusively,  as  an  amulet.  Its  shape  and  peculiarities  might  then 
be  copied  by  the  medicine-men  and  used  in  sorcery,  especially  in  giving 
good  luck  to  the  fishermen  and  in  influencing  the  movements  of  fish  in 
the  rivers,  after  which  these  stones  would  gradually  pass  into  the  hands  of 
neighboring  tribes  either  through  barter  or  by  imitation.  Their  later  pos- 
sessors might  know  nothing  of  their  origin ;  for  them  it  would  be  enough 
to  know  that  they  were  a  protection  from  disease  or  that  they  would 
bring  them  luck  in  hunting,  fishing,  etc.  Mr.  Murdoch  relates  that  one 
of  the  Esquimaux,  in  all  his  hunting  or  fishing  excursions  on  the  ice,  wore, 
suspended  about  his  neck,  a  large  stone  shaped  like  a  sinker  and  weighing 
two  pounds  or  more.  When  at  home  this  sinker  was  always  hung  up  in 
the  hut.  Probably  this  was  originally  a  true  sinker,  and,  having  been 
handed  down  to  the  present  owner,  it  became  invested  with  a  new  value 
and  a  new  use. 

"  In  calling  the  attention  of  an  Indian  to  the  ring  pecked  near  the  ex- 
tremity of  one  of  the  '  medicine  stones,'  he  stated  that  he  did  not  know  its 
purpose,  but  that  the  stones  so  encircled  were  considered  to  be  more  po- 
tent than  others.  Different  Indians  stated  that  they  'never  saw  one 
used  as  a  sinker;  our  sinkers  were  beach  stones,  and  when  one  was 
lost  we  picked  up  another.'"  —  Henshaw,  Sinkers,  105,  et  seq.,  condensed. 

The  surmise  that  they  were  originally  sinkers,  and  grad- 
ually became  regarded  as  possessing  occult  powers,  finds  strong 
support  in  the  observations  of  two  other  writers. 

In  Sonoma  county,  California,  a  lake  of  about  three  hundred  acres 
was  drained  for  cultivation.  A  very  great  number  of  plummets  have  been 
found  in  its  bed,  how  many  is  not  known;  but  within  three  years,  more 
than  thirty  years  after  it  was  drained,  one  man  found  and  picked  up 
more  than  500.  Even  if  we  assume  that  he  was  far  more  successful 
in  his  search  than  any  other  of  the  numerous   collectors  who  have  re- 


Plummets,  Cones  and  Hemispheres.  559 

sorted  to  the  spot,  it  is  a  conservative  estimate  to  say  that  the  site  has 
yielded  6000  specimens. —  Meredith,  322. 

"A  very  old  Indian  chief  of  the  Napa  tribe  (California)  *  * 
stated  to  me  that  the  plummet-shaped  implements  were  used  as  charm 
stones."  They  were  "  suspended  over  the  water  where  the  Indians  in- 
tended to  fish  "  and  "  at  points  in  the  mountains  favorable  for  hunting." 
"  They  were  sometimes  laid  on  ledges  of  rocks  on  high  peaks ;"  they  were 
supposed  to  travel  about  at  night,  and  would  drive  fish  and  game  to  con- 
venient places  for  capture.  "  The  peculiar  pear-shaped  form  was  given 
them  to  enable  them  to  cleave  through  the  water  and  air."  It  was  also 
supposed  they  would  "  make  the  wearer  invisible,-  invulnerable,  and  prove 
beneficial  in  various  ways."  —  Eells,  304. 

Yates  gives  many  references  to  these  relics  and  shows  the 
errors  of  most  of  the  explanations  in  regard  to  them. —  Yates. 

Among  other  uses  which  they  are  supposed  to  have  subserved, 
we  may  cite: — pestles,  for  which  they  are  nearly  all  too  small, 
unless  for  stirring  paint;  spinning-weights,  though  it  has  never 
been  explained  how  they  would  be  attached  to  the  loose  fibei 
or,  in  case  a  number  was  used  close  together,  how  a  hopeless 
entanglement  could  be  prevented ;  slung  shots,  for  which  they  are 
almost  always  too  small;  bolas,  which  there  is  not  the  slightest 
evidence  were  ever  used  by  our  aborigines ;  ornaments,  which  is 
a  convenient  and  comprehensive  designation  for  all  articles  that 
are  not  easily  classified  otherwise. 

CONES. 

The  relics  known  from  their  shape  as  "  cones  "  have  the 
base  flat  and  upper  surface  curving;  usually  the  curve  extends 
regularly  over  the  top,  but  sometimes  the  apex  is  rubbed  off 
flat.  A  top  view  of  one  is  presented  in  figure  171.  The  conic 
surface  may  form  an  angle  with  the  base,  or  the  line  of  junction 
may  be  ro'Unded  into  a  curve.  They  vary  considerably  in  thick- 
ness, some  being  nearly  flat,  others  having  a  height  equal  to  the 
diameter  of  the  base.  Occasionally  one  has  a  pit  or  depression 
on  the  flat  side,  as  seen  in  figure  172;  as  a  rule  the  cavity  is 
much  smaller  and  shallower  than  in  this  specimen. 

HEMISPHERES. 

Hemispheric  stones,  like  the  cones,  can  receive  a  name  only 
from  the  form  and  not  from  any  known  or  imagined  use  to 
which  they  could  have  been  applied.    Almost  invariably  they  are 


560 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


made  of  hematite.  Many,  if  not  most  of  them  have  been  ground 
down  from  the  nodule,  and  were  probably  paint  stones  originally ; 
at  least,  the  material  rubbed  from  them  was  used  as  paint  while 


Figure  171. 


Cones. 


Figure  172. 


the  maker  had  their  final  form  in  view.  One,  however,  has  been 
pecked  into  shape  and  is  entirely  without  polish.  In  all,  the  base 
is  flat  and  varies  in  outline  from  almost  a  circle  to  a  narrow 


Figure   173  —  Hemispheric    Stones. 

ellipse.     A  section  of  the  stone  parallel  to  either  axis  of  the 
base  varies  from  a  little  more  to  a  little  less  than  a  semicircle. 
They  seem  most  abundant  in  the  Kanawha  valley,  and  along 
both  sides  of  the  Ohio  River  from  Parkersburg  to  Cincinnati. 
The  extremes  of  shape  may  be  observed  in  figure  173. 


CHAPTER  XV 


STONES  FOR  CEREMONIAL  OR  DECORATIVE 
PURPOSES. 

THE  great  quantity  of  prehistoric  objects  whose  origin  is 
probably  to  be  sought  in  a  reHgious  or  esthetic  feehng,  the 
very  wide  range  of  form  and  material,  and  their  unlike- 
ness  to  almost  everything  in  use  among  ourselves,  has  caused 
much  conjecture  in  regard  to  their  intended  functions.  They  are 
made  of  many  varieties  of  shell,  bone,  metal,  and  stone,  especially 
slate  and  steatite.  Under  such  names  as  gorgets,  crescents, 
wands,  tubes,  banner-sto-nes,  amulets,  pendants,  butterfly-gor- 
gets, ear-bobs,  bracelets,  head-dresses,  breast-plates,  labrets,  beads, 
nose-rings,  charms,  talismans,  and  a  score  of  others,  they  are 
the  prizes  of  hundreds  of  cabinets  and  are  delineated  in  many 
volumes.  No  doubt  some  owe  their  form  merely  to  a  whira  or 
fancy  of  the  maker;  others  were  purely  decorative  in  their  pur- 
pose ;  while  many  of  them  were  symbolic,  or  for  use  in  the  mani- 
fold dances,  parades,  celebrations,  religious  ceremonies,  and  other 
observances,  so  dear  to  the  minds  of  ignorant  people.  The  man- 
ner of  perforation  in  some  indicates  that  they  were  for  suspension 
by  cords;  in  others  that  they  were  to  be  placed  on  a  staff;  still 
others,  unperforated,  may  have  been  secured  in  various  ways. 
Nearly  all  are  made  of  material  that  would  break  if  carelessly 
handled;  many  are  of  such  size  and  shape  that  no  practical  use 
for  them  can  be  imagined.  To  ascribe  a  purpose  to  any  pattern, 
unless  a  similar  one  had  been  seen  in  actual  service,  would  be 
as  presumptuous  and  probably  as  fallacious  as  the  attempt  by  a 
person  entirely  unacquainted  with  modern  secret  societies  to 
explain  the  meaning  of  badges,  pins,  epaulets,  or  regalia.  A 
statement  that  each  was  for  service  in  a  certain  way  can  not  be 
gainsaid ;  but  the  one  who  makes  the  claim  must  give  satisfactory 
reasons  for  his  assertion  before  it  is  to  be  accepted  as  a  fact 
and  not  as  a  guess. 

36  (561) 


662  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Different  writers  have  supposed  they  were  devoted  to  relig- 
ious, superstitious,  medical,  emblematic,  or  ceremonial  purposes; 
were  badges  of  authority,  insignia  of  rank,  tokens  of  valorous 
deeds,  or  perhaps  some  sort  of  heraldic  device;  in  short,  the 
uses  to  which  they  might,  in  their  different  forms,  be  assigned, 
are  limited  only  by  the  imagination. 

Observations  upon  the  known  habits  and  beliefs  of  various 
people  may  assist  in  enlightening  us  as  to  the  uses  of  some  forms 
of  these  objects. 

The  ancient  Scandinavians  wore  "  victory  stones  "  suspended 
around  their  necks  (Nilsson,  215).  Eskimo  wear  charms  and 
amulets  to  bring  success  in  hunting  and  fishing. —  Abbott,  408. 

"  The  American  archi-magus  wore  a  breastplate  made  of  a  white 
conch-shell,  with  two  holes  bored  in  the  middle  of  it,  through  which  he 
put  the  ends  of  an  otter-skin  strap  and  fastened  a  buck-horn  button  to 
the  outside  of  each."  —  Adair,  48. 

An  explanation  of  the  purpose  of  many  of  the  smaller  per- 
forated stones  also,  may  be  found  in  the  remark  that  the  small 
ovoid  or  ellipsoid  ones  were  used  as  buttons ;  a  string  being  tied 
to  the  robe  at  one  end,  run  through  the  hole,  and  tied  in  a  knot 
(Nilsson,  S^),    It  is  stated  of  the  coast  Indians  of  Alaska,  that 

"  Like  the  Greenlanders  and  other  Eskimos,  they  place  great  reliance 
on  amulets  or  talismans  which  are  carried  on  the  person,  in  the  boat,  or 
even  inserted  in  weapons,  each  apparently  with  some  specific  purpose." 
—  Murdoch,  434. 

"Ceremonial  objects  have  been  found  in  the  Huron  ossuaries  in 
Canada,  in  great  abundance.  A  large  number  of  them  are  made  of 
Huronian  slate.  These  are  shaped  in  the  form  of  animals,  birds,  butter- 
flies, bars,  axes,  and  other  objects  in  nature  and  art.  *  *  *  Some  of 
these,  if  not  the  most  of  them,  must  have  been  used  as  amulets.  Visitors 
to  the  camps  of  the  natives  would  never  observe  them,  as  they  were,  in 
■general,  worn  next  to  the  skin,  and  hidden  from  view  by  the  garments. 
This  is  the  case  at  the  present  day  among  the  Crees  and  Blackfoots. 
*  *  *  We  seldom  read  in  books  written  by  travelers  of  these  ceremonial 
stone  objects,  because  they  would  not  be  permitted  to  see  them,  nor  make 
a  drawing  of  them." 

"  Our  western  Indians  have  been  known  to  wear  around  their  necks 
stones  made  of  various  shapes."  —  Can.  Savage,  205  and  208. 

The  various  Indians  of  Guiana  in  their  leisure  hours  often 
fashion  highly  ornamental  weapons  and  implements  which  they 
never  use  except  ceremonially,  but  keep  proudly  at  home  for  show. 
— Im  Thurn,  XI,  445. 


Charms  and  Talismans  among  Modern  Indians.  563 

So,  too,  the  Yurok  and  Hupa  Indians  of  California,  as  well 
as  some  of  the  tribes  of  Oregon,  have  very  large  spearheads  or 
knives,  which  are  not  designed  for  use,  but  only  to  be  produced  on 
the  occasion  of  a  great  dance.  The  larger  weapons  are  wrapped  in 
skin  to  protect  the  hand ;  the  smaller  ones  are  glued  to  a  handle. 
Some  are  said  to  be  fifteen  inches  long  (Powers,  52  and  79). 
The  Oregon  Indians  believed  the  possession  of  a  large  obsidian 
knife  brought  long  life  and  prosperity  to  the  tribe  owning  it.  — 
Chase. 

Several  of  the  wild  tribes  have  a  mysterious  material  something, 
which  they  regard  as  the  Jews  did  the  "Ark  of  the  Covenant."  The 
Plains  Indians  are  in  no  sense  idol  worshippers,  and  this  "something" 
is  not  worshipped,  but  loved,  venerated  and  held  in  sacred  awe.  Among 
the  Cheyennes  it  was  a  bundle  of  arrows ;  this  was  once  captured  by  the 
Pawnees  and  redeemed  with  three  hundred  ponies.  "  The  medicine  of 
the  Utes  was  a  little  squat  stone  figure."  It  was  captured  by  the  Arapahoes 
•and  never  recovered.  "  The  Utes  are  said  to  attribute  all  their  trouble  of 
late  years  to  its  loss."  "  The  Osage  medicine  is  said  to  be  a  similar 
stone  figure,  smaller  than  that  of  the  Utes,  and  showing  no  marks  of 
chisel."  Besides  this  "  tribal  medicine  "  "  each  individual  warrior  has  a 
charm  of  similar  nature,  which  he  keeps  secret."  —  Dodge,  Indians,  131. 

The  Kiowa  had  a  carved  wooden  image,  representing  a  human 
face ;  the  Ute  captured  it,  and  the  Kiowa  ofifered  very  great  re- 
wards for  its  return ;  but  the  Ute  believing  the  Kiowa  power- 
less to  harm  them  so  long  as  it  was  retained,  refused  to  give  it 
up.  — Abbott,  373. 

The  North  Carolina  Indians,  when  they  went  to  war,  carried 
with  them  their  idol,  of  which  they  told  incredible  stories  and 
asked  counsel  (Brickell,  317)  ;  and  as  a  token  of  rank  or  author- 
ity, the  Virginia  Indians  suspended  on  their  breasts,  by  a  string 
of  beads  about  their  neck,  a  square  plate  of  copper  (Wyth,  part 
I,  plate  8).  These  were  worn  as  badges  of  authority.  The  na- 
tive tribes,  from  our  first  acquaintance  with  them  evinced  a 
fondness  for  insignia  of  this  kind. —  (Schoolcraft:  Grave  Creek, 
401,  plate  I). 

Simply  for  convenience  the  ceremonial  stones  will  here  be 
divided  into  two  general  classes.  The  first,  comprising  those 
pierced  through  the  shortest  diameter,  will  be  called  gorgets, 
which  name,  like  that  of  the  celt,  has  no  particular  meaning  in  this 
connection,  but  is  in  common  use.    The  second  class  will  comprise 


564  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

all  others,  which  will  have  some  name  that  may  or  may  not  be 
suitable  to  their  form,  but  by  which  they  are  usually  called.  In  this 
class  are  included  boat-shape  stones,  banner  stones,  picks,  spool- 
shape  ornaments,  and  bird  shape  stones,  as  well  as  engraved  tab- 
lets or  stones. 

GORGETS. 

The  relics  commonly  called  gorgets  have  been  found  in  Eu- 
rope ;  they  may  be  convex  on  one  side,  concave  on  the  other,  and 
are  supposed  to  be  for  bracers.     They 

"  may  have  been  attached  to  the  left  arm  as  a  protection  against 
the  bow-string,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  more  perfect  specimens  were 
used  for  the  sarhe  purpose.  This  use  is  rendered  more  probable  by  the 
fact  that  specimens  are  found  in  graves  in  such  position  as  indicates  that 
they  were  attached  to  the  arm  of  the  buried  body."  —  Read,   Arch.,  40. 

It  is  said  that  the  Miami  Indians  wore  similar  plates  of  stone 
to  protect  their  wrists  from  the  bowstring  (Amer.  Antiq.  II,  loo). 
It  is  very  doubtful  whether  any  of  them  would  be  suitable  for 
such  purpose.  Abbott  correctly  says  ''they  are  generally  found 
on  the  breast  of  the  buried  body"  (Amer.  Nat.,  VII,  i8o)  ;  but 
as  the  left  arm  of  the  corpse  is  often  laid  across  the  chest,  it  is 
very  easy  to  be  in  error  as  to  the  original  position  of  the  gorget. 
Frequently 

"  The  Indian  wore  upon  his  left  wrist  a  band  of  rawhide,  from  2 
to  3  inches  wide,  as  a  guard  against  the  bowstring.  Many  of  these  come 
from  the  southwest,  where  they  are  ornamented  with  silver  and  worn 
in  ceremonies."  —  Mason:  Bows,  646. 

This,  however,  could  be  easily  shaped  to  fit  the  contour  of  the 
wrist,  whereas  the  rigid  stone  must  be  continually  readjusted  or 
else  bound  on  so  tightly  as  to  interfere  with  the  free  motion  of  the 
hand. 

No  one  has  ever  seen  a  gorget  used  for  this  purpose. 

A  gold  ornament  in  shape  like  a  gorget,  but  not  pierced,  is 
worn  on  the  forehead  by  some  of  the  Amazon  Indians. — H.  & 
G.,  II,  74- 

"  Similar  stones  have  been  recently  seen  in  use  by  the  Pah-Utes  of 
Southern  Nevada  '  for  giving  uniform  size  to  the  bow-strings,'  yet  the 
clean  edges  of  the  perforations  make  it  impossible  to  believe  that  these 
stones  could  have  been  used  for  such  a  purpose,  while  the  difficulty  of 
supposing  they  could  have  been  used  as  buttons,  or  that  they  could  have 
been  suspended  at  all  is  almost  as  great,  unless  we  adopt  the  very 
ingenious  theory  of  Dr.  F.  W.  Putnam,  i.  e.,  that  the  raw  deer  thong 
used  for  suspending  them  and  forced  tightly  through  the  holes,  becoming 


Gorgets.  565 

hard  when  dry,   remained  motionless  in  its  place,  and  rendered  friction 
impossible."  —  Mercer,  4,  note. 

Another  theory  is  that  they  were  sometimes  used  as  twine- 
twisters  (Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  90).  Stevens  denies  that  they 
could  have  been  used  for  any  of  these  purposes;  because  they 
show  no  marks  of  wear  in  the  holes  (Stevens,  478).  Other 
writers  suppose  the  gorgets  to  have  been  shuttles,  for  pass- 
ing the  thread  in  weaving;  but  for  such  use,  as  well  as  for 
twine-twisters,  they  would  be  about  as  awkward  as  anything  that 
could  be  devised.  As  to  reducing  bowstrings  to  a  uniform  diam- 
eter, it  would  seem  that  if  a  string  were  too  large  in  places  to  pass 
through  a  hole,  it  could  not  be  pulled  through ;  pounding  and  roll- 
ing the  wet  string  with  a  smooth  stone  or  by  some  such  means, 
would  be  the  remedy. 

Few  gorgets  show  such  marks  of  wear  around  the  edges  of 
the  hole  as  would  be  made  by  a  cord ;  but  many  are  thus  v^orn  at 
the  middle,  where  the  hole  is  smallest.  Some  specimens  among 
every  lot  are  not  perforated,  or  only  partially  so;  the  drilling 
seems  to  have  been  the  last  stage  of  the  work.  The  hole  is  almost 
always  drilled  from  both  sides,  and  the  few  in  which  it  goes  en- 
tirely through  from  one  side  would  probably  have  had  it  enlarged 
later  from  the  other.  Some  are  fragments  of  larger  gorgets,  the 
pieces  having  been  redrilled. 

Some  of  the  specimens  have  various  notches  and  incised  lines, 
the  latter  being  sometimes  in  tolerably  regular  order;  but  there 
is  not  the  slightest  indication  that  these  marks  had  any  meaning 
or  were  indeed  for  any  other  purpose  than  to  add  to  the  orna- 
mental appearance  of  the  stone. 

If  they  were  to  be  worn  at  the  belt  or  on  any  part  of  the 
dress  they  could  easily  have  been  fastened  by  a  knotted  string, 
or  if  the  wearer  desired  he  could  have  an  ornamental  button  of 
some  kind.  If  suspended  around  the  neck,  in  order  to  make 
them  lie  flat  against  the  breast  they  probably  had  a  short  cord 
passed  through  the  perforation  and  tied  above  the  top  of  the 
object,  the  suspending  cord  being  passed  through  the  loop  thus 
formed. 

An  article  in  use  among  the  Indians  of  the  southwest  is  very 
like  the  flat  gorgets. 

The  Rhombus  or  "bull-roarer,"  among  the  Apaches,  is  a  thin  flat 
rectangular  piece  of  wood,   usually  7  or  8  inches  long,   1^  inches  wide. 


566 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


\  inch  thick,  having  attached  a  cord  by  which  it  can  be  rapidly  swung; 
round  the  head ;  the  noise  it  makes  "  faithfully  imitating  the  sound  of  a 
gust  of  rain-laden  wind."  A  similar  "  twirler  "  is  known  to  have  been 
used  in  many  parts  of  the  world.  "  The  Apaches,  both  men  and  women, 
wear  amulets,  *  *  duplicates  on  a  small  scale,  of  the  Rhombus,"  tO' 
which  they  attribute  almost  supreme  power. —  Bourke,  476  and  587. 

In  figures  174,  175  and  176,  are  presented  seventeen  illus- 
trations of  as  many  different  gorgets. 


Figure  174  —  Gorgets. 


BANNER   STONES. 

Under  the  head  of  "  banner  stones  "  are  placed  ornaments; 
having  the  ends  at  right  angles  to  the  perforation.  The  hole- 
is  drilled  in  a  midrib,  from  which  the  faces  slope  by  either  straight 
or  curved  lines  to  the  edges.  The  two  halves  of  the  stone  are- 
symmetrical.  In  most  specimens  one  face  is  flatter  than  the  other, 
even  plane  in  some  cases.  Some  specimens  are  finished  to  a  high 
polish  before  the  hole  is  started ;  others  have  the  hole  completed 
with  the  exterior  more  or  less  unfinished.  They  may  be  classified! 
as  follows : 


Banner  Stones, 


667 


Figure  175  —  Gorgets. 

A.  Rectangular  or  trapezoidal,  with  sides  and  ends  some- 
times slightly  curved  inward  or  outward. 

B.  Reel-shape. 

C.  Crescentic. 

D.  Butterfly  pattern. 

The  last  three  varieties  may  be  considered  as  only  modifica- 
tions of  the  simple  rectangular  banner  stones.     By  rounding  off 


668 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


the  corners  of  the  articles  or  dressing  them  to  sharp  points,  by  cut- 
ting away  portions  from  the  sides  or  by  trimming  away  the  central 
portions  at  either  or  both  ends  of  the  perforations,  all  these  differ- 
ent forms  may  be  produced. 


Figure  176  —  Gorgets. 


The  crescentic  banner  stones  might  better  be  termed  "  semi- 
lunar," since  most  of  them  are  flat  at  one  end  and  curved  at  the 
other.  Occasionally  one  has  both  ends  curved  and  parallel, 
the  sides  also  slightly  curved,  making  the  article  reniform.  Others 
have  the  ends  straight  and  parallel,  with  the  sides  curved,  or  like 
the  zone  of  a  circle. 

The  "  butterfly  "  gorgets  are  so  named  from  their  resem- 
blance to  a  butterfly  with  expanded  wings.  The  sides  or  wings 
are  usually  quite  thin,  either  semicular  or  like  a  spherical  triangle 


Bird-shape  and  Spool-shape  Stones.  569 

in  outline.    The  perforated  mid-rib  is  shorter  than  the  wings  and 
carefully  worked. 

A  few  of  the  numerous  forms  of  so-called  "  ceremonial 
stones"  are  given  in  figures  177  to  180.  The  soft  thin  stone  being 
easily  broken,  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  the  pieces  perforated  so 
that  they  can  be  fastened  together  with  cords.  This  may  be  seen 
in  the  specimen  at  the  left  of  figure  177. 

BIRD-SHAPED    STOI^ES. 

A  series  of  ornaments  or  ceremonial  stones  apparently  highly 
valued  by  the  natives  of  the  northern  States,  begins  with  the 
straight,  almost  rod-like,  "bar  amulet,"  figure  181,  and  passes 
through  the  "  saddle-shaped  "  to  the  elaborately  finished  "  bird- 
shaped  "  stones,  figure  182.  They  very  rarely  occur  south  of  the 
Ohio ;  but  north  of  that  stream  are  found  in  considerable  numbers 
thro'Ughout  the  Lake  region  and  in  Canada.  Many  of  the  last 
form  have  projections  on  each  side  of  the  head,  which  gives 
them  the  aspect  of  a  horned  animal  rather  than  of  a  bird ;  but 
the  other  end  is  flattened  to  resemble  the  feathers  of  an  expanded 
tail.  According  to  Gillman,  bird-shaped  stones  were  worn  on 
the  head  by  the  Indian  women,  but  only  after  marriage.  (Gill- 
man,  M.  B.,  371.)  Abbott  quotes  Col.  Charles  Whittlesey  to  the 
eflfect  that  they  were  worn  by  Indian  women  to  denote  preg- 
nancy, and  from  William  Penn  that  when  the  squaws  were  ready 
to  marry  they  wore  something  on  their  heads  to  indicate  that  fact. 
(Abbott,  371).  Jones  quotes  from  De  Bry  that  the  conjurers 
among  the  Virginia  Indians  wore  a  small,  black  bird  above  one 
of  their  ears  as  a  badge  of  their  ofiice.     (Jones,  30.) 

Gushing  illustrates  a  number  of  rudely  executed  figures  of  animals 
and  birds,  made  of  stone,  which  are  representative  of  the  various  hunter- 
gods  or  gods  of  the  chase.  Their  possession  insures  success  in  hunting 
or  good  fortune  with  domestic  animals. —  Gushing;  Zuni. 

SPOOLS. 
The  peculiar  spool-shaped  objects  shown  in  figure  183  are 
confined  almost  entirely  to  the  territory  along  the  Ohio  River 
between  the  Big  Sandy  and  the  Little  Miami.     No  suggestion 
of  their  purpose  has  ever  been  ventured. 


570  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure    177  —  Banner    Stones. 


Ceremonial  Stones.  ^'^^ 


Figure   178  —  "Pendants"    (?). 


Figure  179  ^.  iso  -  "Pi. 

Perforated  Slate  Objects. 


■572 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure    181  —  "Bar    Amulets. 


Figure  182  —  Bird-shape  Stones. 


spools  and  Unfinished  Pipes.  573 


Figure  183  —  Spool-shape  Stones. 


Figure   184  —  Unfinished  Pipes. 


WORKING   SOFT   STONE. 

The  unfinished  specimens  portrayed  in  figures  184  to  187, 
afford  evidence  that  in  making  pipes  and  slate  ornaments  the 
rough  stone  or  block  was  chipped  and  pecked  into  approximately 
the  desired  form,  and  afterward  smoothed  with  rubbing-stones 
of  some  gritty  material.  Three  of  the  latter,  apparently  for 
varied  uses,  are  shown  in  figure  188. 


674 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  185  —  Unfinished  Slate  Objects. 


Unfinished  Objects,  Showing  Method  of  Working.      575 


Figure    186  —  Unfinished    Slate    Objects. 


576  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure    187 —Unfinished    Slate    Objects. 


Figure    188  —  Grinding   or    Polishing    Stones. 
TUBES. 

Various  suggestions  have  been  offered  in  regard  to  probable 
uses  of  lo-ng  slender  stones,  usually  quite  soft,  perforated  from 
end  to  end.  The  form  is  conical,  cylindrical,  or  like  an  elongated 
hour-glass.  In  some  shape  or  other,  they  occur  over  the  entire 
country. 


Tubes. 


577 


The  larger  tube  shown  in  figure  189  (S.  &  D.,  224,  fig.  122), 

"  was  found  in  a  mound  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Chillicothe. 
It  is  composed  of  a  compact  variety  of  slate;  the  ground  is  brownish  or 
leaden  green,  interstratified  with  veins  of  variable  thickness.  [It]  is 
thirteen  inches  long  by  one  and  one-tenth  in  diameter.  *  *  *  It  is 
drilled  throughout;  the  bore  is  seven-tenths  of  an  inch  in  diameter  at 
the  cylindrical  end  of  the  tube,  and  retains  that  caliber  until  it  reaches 
the  point  where  the  cylinder  subsides  into  the  mouth-piece,  when  it  con- 
tracts gradually  to  one-tenth  of  an  inch  at  the  end.  The  carving  is  very 
fine  and  much  superior  to  anything  of  which  the  Indians  at  this  day 
are  known  to  be  capable."  —  S.  &  D.,  224. 

Three  tubes,  the  longest  twelve  inches,  the  shortest  eight  inches, 
were  found  in  one  of  the  smaller  mounds,  "  carved  by  their  makers  out 
of  a  species  of  compact,  blue  and  white  mottled  steatite    *    *    *    The 


Figure    189  —  Tubes. 

quality  of  the  stone,  like  most  of  the  magnesian  species,  is  soft  enough  to 
be  cut  with  a  knife.  *  *  *  i  learned  by  inquiry,  that  a  quarry  or 
locality  of  this  species  of  rock,  exists  on  the  banks  of  Grave  Creek,  some 
four  or  five  miles  above  the  great  mound.  This  establishes  the  fact  that 
they  were  made  here,  and  not  brought  from  a  distance."  —  Schoolcraft, 
Grave  Creek,  406. 

Tubes  of  a  stone  similar  to  that  above  described,  come  from 
the  Kanawha  valley.  It  is  not  steatite,  but  its  composition  is 
unknown  as  no  analysis  has  been  made  of  it.  Steatite  does  not 
occur  at  any  place  in  West  Virginia. 

Schoolcraft,  it  seems,  did  not  examine  the  deposit  to  which 
he  alludes.  It  is  very  probably  of  a  similar  nature  to  a  peculiar 
mixture  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Marietta.  Scattered  through 
beds  of  dark-brown  or  chocolate  colored  clay,  or  "  shale  "  as  it 
is  locally  termed,  are  bowlder-like  masses  of  clay  and  sand  con- 
taining more  or  less  mica  in  minute  scales ;  the  color  is  light-gray, 
so-metimes  tinged  with  yellow. 


37 


578  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

When  first  quarried  from  a  depth  of  three  or  four  feet,  the 
gray  material  somewhat  resembles  steatite  in  appearance,  and 
has  a  similar  smooth,  almost  greasy  feel,  on  account  of  the  mica 
and  the  included  water.  It  is  then  not  harder  than  common  chalk 
or  gypsum;  on  exposure  to  air  it  solidifies  as  the  water  evapor- 
ates, and  in  a  short  time  becomes  as  hard  as  slate  or  whetstone. 
The  ultimate  degree  of  hardness  will  depend  upo-n  the  amount 
of  silica,  relative  to  the  other  ingredients ;  and  to  judge  by  its 
action  in  kilns,  the  hardness  would  be  increased  by  heating.  It  is 
quite  Hkely  that  various  objects  usually  classed  as  '""  sandstone  " 
or  "  sandy  slate  ",  were  made  of  rock  like  this ;  but  the  tubes 
from  the  Grave  Creek  mound  seem  to  be  of  a  somewhat  different 
though  allied  substance. 

The  purposes  for  which  tubes  were  employed  are  pointed 
out  by  several  writers. 

"  A  large  pottery  tube  was  taken  from  a  mound  near  CoUinwood, 
east  of  Cleveland.  The  base  gradually  diminishes  toward  the  smaller 
€nd  and  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  from  it  is  much  reduced  by  a 
square  offset.  In  it  when  found  was  a  slightly  flattened  pottery  ball, 
which  would  drop  down  the  tube  until  stopped  by  this  offset.  It  is  called 
a  horn,  and  by  blowing  in  it,  a  sound  can  be  produced,  audible  at  a  long 
distance.  The  fact  that  a  louder  sound  is  produced  when  the  ball  is  in 
the  tube,  and  the  mouth  of  the  tube  elevated,  favors  the  idea  that  it  was 
designed  as  a  horn."  —  Read,  Arch.,  44, 

Tubes  were  used  for  drinking  or  supping  among  many  peoples,  to 
prevent  burning,  or  taking  in  dirt,  or  for  convenience. —  Bourke,  493. 

The  California  Indians  "  applied  to  the  suffering  part  of  the  patient's 
body  the  chacuaco,  or  a  tube  formed  out  of  a  very  hard  black  stone,  and 
through  this  they  sometimes  sucked  and  other  times  blew,  but  both 
as  hard  as  they  were  able,  supposing  that  thus  the  disease  was  either 
exhaled  or  dispersed.  Sometimes  the  tube  was  filled  with  cimarron  or 
wild  tobacco  lighted,  and  here  they  either  sucked  in  or  blew  down  the 
smoke,  according  to  the  physician's  direction ;  and  this  powerful  caustic 
sometimes,  without  any  other  remedy,  has  been  known  entirely  to  remove 
the  disorder."  —  Vanegas,  I,  97. 

"These  jugglers  [the  medicine  men  of  Lower  California]  employ  a 
small  tube  which  they  use  for  sucking  or  blowing  the  patient  for  a 
while;"  presently  they  show  him  a  small  object  of  some  sort,  "pretend- 
ing to  have  at  last  removed  the  real  cause  of  the  disorder."  —  Baegert; 
quoted  by  Jones,  363. 

The  healers  in  Florida  "  suck  that  part  of  the  body  which  causes 
the  patient  the  most  pain;  and  they  do  it  either  with  the  mouth  or 
with  a  kind  of  sheperd's  flute,  having  first  made  a  small  incision  near 
some  vein."  —  Coreal :  quoted  by  Jones,  362. 


Tubes,  579 

The  Dakota  Indians  used  a  horn  tube  in  bleeding;  one  end 
was  set  over  the  cut,  and  the  other  vigorously  sucked  (School- 
craft, History,  I,  253).  The  Acaxees  of  Mexico  employ  blow- 
ing through  a  hollow  tube  for  the  cure  of  disease. — Bancroft, 
H.  H.,  I,  580). 

The  Virginia  Indians  used  reeds  in  treating  diseases  by 
sucking  or  blowing  through  them,  and  also  used  them  in  cauter- 
izing (Jones,  362-4).  Hoffman  illustrates  the  removal  of  disease 
through  the  agency  of  a  tube  of  bone  by  a  medicine  man  of  the 
Ojibwa.— Hoffman,  W.  J.,  278,  plate  XVIII. 

"  We  find  all  over  the  world  this  primitive  cure  by  sucking  out  the 
evil,  which  perhaps  even  with  ourselves  lingers  among  nurses  and  children 
in  the  universal  nursery  remedy  of  *  kiss  and  make  it  well.'  "  —  Civili- 
zation,  20. 

The  Klamath  Indians  use  tubes  for  smoking  (Powers,  426). 
The  Indians  of  southern  California  inhale  smoke  of  certain  herbs 
through  a  tube  to  produce  intoxication. — Bancroft,  H.  H.,  566. 

Oviedo  says  "  The  caciques  and  principal  men  [of  the  extreme  south- 
west] have  small  hollowed  sticks  about  a  span  long  and  as  thick  as  the 
little  finger;  they  are  forked  in  the  manner  here  shown,  Y,  but  both  the 
forks  and  the  stalk  are  of  the  same  piece.  The  forked  ends  are  inserted 
in  the  nostrils  and  the  other  end  is  applied  to  the  burning  leaves  of 
the  herb,  which  is  rolled  up  in  the  manner  of  pastils.  They  then  inhale 
the  smoke  until  they  fall  down  in  a  state  of  stupor  in  which  they  remain 
as  if  intoxicated,  for  a  considerable  time.  Such  of  the  Indians  as  can 
not  procure  a  forked  stick,  use  a  reed  or  hollow  cane  for  the  purpose 
of  inhaling  the   smoke."  —  Read,   Arch.,   43. 

The  Indian  mode  of  inhaling  smoke  wo-uld  produce  the 
same  result,  whether  it  passed  through  the  mouth  or  the  nostrils. 
They  draw  the  lungs  as  full  as  possible,  retain  it  a  moment  and 
then  slowly  exhale  it. 

The  California  Indians  drilled  their  tubes  from  both  ends  and 
enlarged  the  hole  from  one  end  by  scraping,  the  mouth-piece  being  made 
of  a  bird  bone  stuck  on  with  asphaltum. —  Schumacher,  2G8. 

The  use  of  stone,  or  any  other,  tubes  for  astronomical  pur- 
poses, which  has  been  discovered  by  some  imaginative  writers, 
is,  of  course,  absurd.  Nevertheless,  they  are  useful  in  viewing 
distant  objects  on  a  bright  day,  especially  when  looking  toward 
the  sun,  as  they  exclude  all  rays  of  light  except  those  proceeding 
from  the  direction  of  the  point  toward  which  they  are  turned. 


580  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


INSCRIBED  TABLETS. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago  it  was  written, 

"  Hardly  a  year  passes  unsignalized  by  the  announcement  of  the 
discovery  of  tablets  of  stone  or  metal,  bearing  strange  or  mystical  inscrip- 
tions. *  *  *  But  they  either  fail  to  withstand  an  analysis  of  the 
alleged  circumstances  attending  their  discovery,  or  resolve  themselves 
into  very  simple  natural  productions."  —  S.   &  D.,  274. 

The  authors  are  referring  in  the  above  sentence  only  to 
specimens  which  had  been  exploited  as  alphabetic  or  historic  in 
their  character.  It  should  have  been  stated,  as  we  now  know, 
that  some  genuine  aboriginal  tablets  are  capable  of  interpreta- 
tion in  the  light  of  the  ordinary  ornamentation  or  symbolism 
which  finds  expression  in  so  many  other  directions. 

"  Any  inscriptions  purporting  to  be  pre-Columbian,  showing  appar- 
ent use  of  alphabetic  characters,  signs  of  the  Zodiac  or  other  evidences 
of  culture  higher  than  that  known  among  the  North  American  Indians, 
must  be  received  with  caution,  but  the  pictographs  may  be  altogether 
genuine,  and  their  erroneous  interpretation  may  be  the  sole  ground  for 
discrediting  them."  —  Mallery,  764. 

Since  that  time,  many  other  inscribed  stones  have  been  her- 
alded as  furnishing  the  key  that  shall  unlock  the  secrets  of  our 
ancient  history  —  as  soon  as  we  know  how  to  read  them.  Bare 
mention  will  be  made  of  a  few.  Should  the  reader  care  to  know 
more,  he  will  find  in  McLean's  volume  the  best  article  yet  pub- 
lished on  the  subject  of  tablets.  It  describes  those  which  are 
discussed  in  various  works,  and  contains  some  much-needed 
caustic  remarks  in  regard  to  frauds,  which  ignorant  or  unscru- 
pulous collectors  have  imposed  upon  the  public. — McLean,  chap- 
ters VIII  and  IX. 

No  other  objects  of  this  kind  have  given  rise  to  more  dis- 
cussion than  three  tablets  found  in  small  mounds  near  Daven- 
port, Iowa.  Two  of  them  are  of  shale,  the  other  of  limestone. 
Their  modern  origin  is  shown  by  the  following  test : 

"  The  aid  of  actual  pictographers  among  the  living.  Indians,  should 
be  adopted  regarding  all  remarkable  finds.  This  course  was  pursued 
by  Mr.  Rust,  of  Pasadena,  California,  regarding  the  Davenport  tablets. 
He  exhibited  the  drawings  to  several  of  the  older  and  more  intelligent 
members  of  the  Dakota  tribe.  They  readily  gave  the  same  interpretation 
(and  in  no  instance  did  either  interpreter  know  that  another  had  seen 
the  pictures  so  that  there  could  be  no  collusion).     It  is  quite  evident  from 


The  Davenport  Tablets.     The  Lenape  Stone.  581 

the  ready  reading  of  these  tablets  by  the  Dakotans,  that  they  are  either 
genuine,  and  of  Siouan  origin;  or  that  they  were  made  by  some  one 
famiHar  with  the  Siouan  method  of  representing  events.  The  principal 
one  portrays  an  ordinary  Indian  dance."  —  Mallery,  764,  condensed. 

Thomas  says  of  them : 

"  A  consideration  of  all  the  facts  leads  us,  inevitably,  to  the  con- 
clusion that  these  relics  are  frauds;  that  is,  they  are  modern  productions 
made  to  deceive."  But  there  is  not  the  slightest  suspicion  of  any  chi- 
canery on  the  part  of  any  member  of  the  Davenport  Academy,  which 
has  been  instrumental  in  bringing  these  tablets  to  the  notice  of  the 
world.  These  gentlemen,  except  one  who  has  expressed  his  disbelief, 
believe — or  believed — these  tablets  genuine ;  overlooking  the  fact  that 
they  prove  entirely  too  much.—  B.  E.  12,  633  to  643. 

The  limestone  tablet  has  'been  subjected  to  considerable  heat, 
as  shown  by  the  color  of  one  part  of  it.  Had  it  lain  long  in  the 
^arth,  exposed  to  percolating  waters,  that  portion  must  have 
crumbled.  The  figure  which  has  been  called  a  "sun-god"  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  rude  copy  of  a  sign  which  may  be 
seen  at  almost  any  saloon ;  namely,  Gambrinus  astride  of  a  beer 
barrel,  holding  aloft  a  foaming  goblet.  The  shale  tablets,  with 
their  aggregation  of  ancient  and  modern,  Indian  and  European, 
native  and  foreign  symbols,  have  been  engraven  with  a  steel  blade, 
apparently  square-pointed  or  in  the  form  of  a  shoemaker's  knife. 
This  will  be  evident  to  any  one  who  makes  a  careful  examination 
of  the  incisions  with  a  pocket  lens. 

"  Six  inscribed  copper  plates  [said  to  have  been]  found  in  a  mound 
near  Kinderhook,  Illinois,  were  reported  to  bear  a  close  resemblance 
to  Chinese.  *  *  *  jt-  ^^g  ascertained  that  the  plates  had  been  engraved 
by  the  village  blacksmith,  copied  from  the  lid  of  a  Chinese  tea-chest."  — 
Mallery,  759. 

The  "Lenape  Stone"  is  a  slate  gorget  found  in  Bucks  county, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1872.  It  has  upon  one  side  an  etching  of  a 
fight  between  a  mammoth  or  mastodon,  and  four  Indians.  On 
the  reverse  side  is  a  medley  of  characters,  representing  fishes, 
tomahawks,  and  various  other  things.  As  usual,  the  fabricators 
of  the  tablet  have  overdone  the  matter.  In  their  anxiety  to  make 
out  a  good  case  they  always  prove  too  much,  and  overlook  some 
minor  feature  which  betrays  the  modern  origin  of  the  "wonder- 
ful discovery." — (See)  Mercer. 

"  David  Wyrick,  of  Newark,  Ohio,  *  *  *  discovered  in  1860  a 
tablet  bearing  on  one  side  a  truculent  '  likeness  '  of  Moses     *     *    *    and 


582  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

on  the  other  a  Hebrew  abridgement  of  the  ten  commandments.  A  Hebrew 
Bible  afterwards  found  in  Mr.  Wyrick's  private  room  threw  some  light 
upon  the  inscribed  characters."  —  Mallery,  760. 

The  Grave  Creek  tablet  is  another  which  has  come  in  for  a 
full  share  of  arguments,  pro  and  con. 

There  is  no  reason  for  believing  it  to  have  been  deposited  in  the 
mound  by  the  builders;  or  if  it  was,  for  attaching  any  importance  to  it 
more  than  to  any  other  stone  marked  with  uncertain  or  unknown  char- 
acters of  any  description.  Col.  Whittlesey  says  "  whether  a  forgery  or 
the  work  of  the  Mound  Builders,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  char- 
acters have  any  alphabetic  or  phonetic  value." — Read,  Tablet. 

The  illustrations  which  accompany  the  detailed  account  of 
the  "Wilmington  Tablets"  by  the  discoverers,  so  manifestly  show 
their  fraudulent  character  that  no  further  reference  need  be 
made  to  them. — (vS^^^)  Welch. 

The  Cincinnati  tablet,  as  proven  fey  Robert  Clarke,  is  a  gen- 
uine mound  relic,  found  where  there  was  no  possibility  of  its 
having  been  deposited  subsequent  to  the  construction  of  the 
mound. 

The  "Berlin  Tablet,"  too,  is  genuine;  but  it  is  impossible  to 
decipher  the  significance,  if  there  be  any^  in  its  rudely  drawn  and 
apparently  meaningless  lines. —  Sylvester,  73. 

PIPES. 

The  endless  variety  in  form  and  decoration  in  pipes  finds 
its  readiest  explanation  in  the  assumption  that  Indians  in  the 
central  valleys  observed  a  custom  which  prevailed  among  those 
resident  on  the  plains. 

"  For  different  occasions  or  ceremonies  they  have  different  pipes. 
Thus  they  have  a  peace  pipe,  a  council  pipe,  a  medicine  pipe,  and  a  pipe 
for  common  use.  Each  is  sacred  to  its  own  purpose."  —  Dodge,  In- 
dians, 130. 

The  manufacture  of  an  article  so  highly  prized  would  call 
for  the  best  efforts  of  which  its  maker  was  capable.  In  the 
desire  to  give  material  expression  to  a  symbol  or  an  idea;  to 
fashion  a  totem  or  clan  mark  which  shall  attract  attention ;  to 
signalize  some  exploit  of  the  owner ;  or  even  to  excite  admiration 
for  ornamental  carving  —  time  and  labor  would  not  be  considered 
of  any  moment.  This  would  be  equally  true  whether  the  pipe 
were  intended  for  the  use  of  the  maker,  or  for  some  one  else. 


Monitor  Pipes.  583 

Each  individual  smoker  raight,  for  one  or  another  of  these  rea- 
sons, require  a  pipe  differing  from  all  others.  At  the  same  time, 
certain  rites  and  ceremonies  might  demand  a  similarity  in  pipes 
or  other  objects  necessary  to  their  performance  or  observance. 

"  The  Mound  Builders  were  inveterate  smokers,  if  the  great  number 
of  pipes  discovered  in  the  mounds  be  admitted  as  evidence  of  the  fact. 
*  *  *  In  their  construction  the  skill  of  the  makers  seems  to  have 
been  exhausted."  "  They  are  always  carved  from  a  single  piece,  and 
consist  of  a  flat  curved  base,  of  variable  length  and  width,  with  the 
bowl  rising  from  the  center  of  the  convex  side.  From  one  of  the  ends, 
and  communicating  with  the  hollow  of  the  bowl,  is  drilled  a  small  hole, 
which  answers  the  purpose  of  a  tube;  the  corresponding  opposite  division 
being  left  for  the  manifest  purpose  of  holding  the  implement  to  the 
mouth."  One  specimen  *'  is  finely  carved  from  a  beautiful  variety  of  light 
brown  porphyry,  granulated  with  variously  colored  materials, — the  whole 
much  changed  by  the  action  of  fire,  and  somewhat  resembling  porcelain. 
It  is  intensely  hard,  and  successfully  resists  the  edge  of  the  hardest 
tempered  knife."  —  S.  &  D.,  227-8. 

This  style  of  pipe  is  now  generally  known  as  the  ''Monitor,'* 
from  its  resemblance  in  outline  to  the  war  vessel  of  that  type. 
Later  explorations  have  shown  that  Squier  and  Davis  were  mis- 
taken in  supposing  that  it  is  peculiar  to  the  mounds ;  other  forms 
occur  in  them  as  well,  while  the  monitor  is  not  uncommon  in 
graves  and  village-sites.  As  will  appear  later,  they  secured  noth- 
ing made  of  "porphyry;"  the  hardness  in  this  specimen,  as  in 
most  others,  is  doubtless  caused  by  the  heat  to  which  it  has  been 
exposed.     A  fine  example  is  shown  in  figure  113. 

"  The  *  Monitor '  type  is  considered  the  oldest  form  of  the  mound- 
builder's  pipe  and  yet  we  not  only  have  the  evidence  that  it  was  in  use 
among  the  Indians  of  this  region,  but  it  is  easy  to  trace  in  the  mound 
specimens  the  modifications  which  brought  into  use  the  simple  form  of 
the  modern  Indian  pipe.  *  *  *  Among  the  specimens  obtained  from 
the  various  localities  [from  Ohio  to  New  Jersey  and  Georgia]  can  be 
found  every  possible  graduation,  from  the  ancient  Ohio  type  to  the  modern 
form  [in  use  among  the  Cherokees].  There  is,  therefore,  in  this  peculiar 
line  of  art  and  custom  an  unbroken  chain  connecting  the  mound-builders 
of  Ohio  with  the  Indian  of  historic  times,  and  what  strengthens  the 
argument,  in  the  same  fact  is  evidence  that  disconnects  the  makers  from 
the  Mexican  and  Central  American  peoples."  —  B.   E.   12,  705. 

While  there  is  some  force  in  the  argument  that  the  Mound 
Builders  were  not  an  offshoot  of  the  Mexicans  because  pipes  were 
not  in  use  among  the  latter,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  pipe  forms 
a  more  logical  connection  between  Mound  Builders  and  known 


684  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Indians  than  many  other  objects  do.  In  all  classes  of  relics  there 
is  such  an  infinity  of  form  and  finish  that  one  type  may  be  linked 
with  almost  any  other  by  a  series  in  which  the  change  from  each 
one  to  the  next  is  so  slight  as  to  be  scarcely  perceptible. 

One  fact  upon  which  Thomas  bases  his  theory  that  Cherokees 
are  descendants  of  Ohio  Mound  Builders,  is  the  following  state- 
ment by  Adair: 

"  They  made  beautiful  stone  pipes;  and  the  Cherakee  the  best  of  any 
of  the  Indians;  for  their  mountainous  country  contains  many  different 
sorts  and  colors  of  soils  proper  for  such  uses.  They  easily  form  them 
with  their  tomahawks,  and  afterward  finish  them  in  any  desired  form  with 
their  knives;  the  pipes  being  of  a  very  soft  quality  till  they  are  smoked 
with,  and  used  to  the  fire,  when  they  become  quite  hard.  They  are  often 
a  full  span  long,  and  the  bowls  are  about  half  as  large  again  as  those  of 
our  English  pipes.  The  fore  part  of  each  commonly  runs  out  with  a 
sharp  peak,  two  or  three  fingers  broad,  and  a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick  —  on 
both  sides  of  the  bowl,  lengthwise,  they  cut  several  pictures  with  a  great 
deal  of  skill  and  labor;  such  as  a  buffalo  and  a  panther  on  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  bowl;  a  rabbit  and  a  fox, —  Adair,  423. 

This  is  not  conclusive  by  any  means.  The  pipes  described 
have  a  resemblance  to  the  monitor  form,  but  it  must  be  noted  that 
the  effigies  are  either  carved  on  the  outside  of  the  bowl  or  else  on 
the  stem  to  one  side  or  perhaps  both  sides,  of  the  bowl ;  whereas 
in  the  mound  pipes  the  efiigy  contains  the  bowl.  No  more  sat- 
isfying is  his  contention  that  the  Cherokees  migrated  to  Ohio 
from  Iowa  because 

Several  eflfigy  and  platform  pipes  have  been  found  in  the  region  about 
Davenport,  Iowa.  They  are  much  ruder  in  form  and  finish  than  the  Ohio 
specimens,  and  made  of  the  softer  grades  of  stone. —  Barber,  265. 

By  the  same  process  of  reasoning  he  could  have  brought  them 
from  the  eastern  sea-board.     Abbott  figures  a  monitor  pipe  from 

"  Essex  county,  Mass.  Many  of  the  finest  example  of  this  pattern 
of  pipe  have  been  recovered  from  graves  in  this  vicinity."  It  is  "  a  com- 
mon  Atlantic   coast  pattern   of  smoking  pipe."  —  Abbott,   319. 

Monitor  pipes,  with  effigy  bowls  are  shown  on  subsequent 
pages.  Three  others,  with  plain  bowls,  forming  a  gradation  be- 
tween the  mound  types  and  common  modern  shapes,  are  rep- 
resented in  figure  190. 


Cat  Unite  and  Similar  Stone. 


585 


If  we  may  believe  one  early  author,  the  Indians  along  the 
Atlantic  procured  material  for  pipes  from  the  "  Pipestone " 
deposits  near  the  line  between  Dakota  and  Minnesota.  If  such 
be  the  case,  we  need  look  no  further  than  strolling  traders  to 
acco'unt  for  the  existence  of  monitor  pipes  500  miles  from  Ohio. 

"  Peter  Kalm,  in  his  "  Travels  in  North  America,"  says  the  Delawares 
have  '  pipes  which  are  made  with  great  ingenuity,  of  a  very  fine  red  pot- 
stone,  or  a  kind  of  serpentine  marble.  They  are  very  scarce.  The  fine 
red  stone  is  likewise  very  scarce,  and  is  found  only  on  the  other  side  of 
the  river  Mississippi.'     Pipes  made  of  Catlinite  are  of  very  rare  occurrence 


Figure  190  —  Monitor  Pipes. 

in  New  England,  and  even  more  so  in  New  Jersey  or  Pennsylvania. 
In  western  New  York,  occasional  specimens  have  been  found."  —  Ab- 
bott, 317,  condensed. 

A  stone  similar  to  catlinite  is  mentioned  as  existing  much 
farther  eastward. 

"  In  this  journey  of  M.  de  Borgmont,  mention  is  made  only  of  what 
we  meet  with  from  Fort  New  Orleans,  from  which  we  set  out,  in  order 
to  go  to  the  Padoucas;  wherefore  I  ought  to  speak  of  a  thing  curious 
enough  to  be  related,  which  is  found  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri ;  and 
that  is  a  pretty  high  cliflf,  upright  from  the  water.  From  the  middle  of 
the  cliff  juts  out  a  mass  of  red  stone  with  zvhite  spots,  like  porphyry, 
with  this  difference,  that  what  we  are  now  speaking  of  is  almost  soft  and 
tender  like  sandstone.  The  stone  is  easily  worked  and  bears  the  most  vio- 
lent fire.  The  Indians  of  the  country  have  contrived  to  strike  ofT  pieces 
thereof  with  their  arrows,  and  after  they  fall  into  the  water  plunge  in  for 


586  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

them.  When  they  procure  pieces  large  enough  to  make  pipes,  they  fashion 
them  with  knives  and  awls.  This  pipe  has  a  socket  two  or  three  inches 
long,  and  on  the  opposite  side  the  figure  of  a  hatchet;  in  the  middle  of  all 
is  the  bort  or  bowl  to  put  the  tobacco  in.'"  —  S.  &  D.,  286;  from  Du 
Pratz,  179. 

There  is  no  place  at  present  known  where  stone  such  as. 
that  described  is  to  be  obtained  under  the  conditions  indicated. 
The  material  itself,  however,  corresponds  with  that  which  the 
authors  claim  to  have  found  in  the  mounds. 

The  methods  followed  in  making  the  effigy  pipes  are  well 
exhibited  in  the  specimen  shown  in  figure  191  (S.  &  D.,  267,, 
figure  182). 


Figure    191  —  Unfinished    Effigy    Pipe. 


It  "is  unfinished.  The  base  and  various  parts  of  the  figure  exhibit 
fine  striae  resulting  from  rubbing  and  grinding;  but  the  general  outline 
seems  to  have  been  secured  by  cutting  with  some  sharp  instrument,  the 
marks  of  which  are  plainly  to  be  seen,  especially  at  the  parts  where  it 
■  would  be  difficult  or  impracticable  to  approach  with  a  triturating  substance. 
The  lines  indicating  the  feathers,  grooves  of  the  beak,  and  other  more 
delicate  features,  are  cut  or  graved  in  the  surface  at  a  single  stroke. 
Some  pointed  tool  seems  to  have  been  used,  and  the  marks  are  visible 
where  it  occasionally  slipped  beyond  the  control  of  the  engraver.  In- 
deed, the  whole  appearance  of  the  specimen  indicates  that  the  work  was 
done  rapidly  by  an  experienced  hand,  and  that  the  various  parts  were 
brought  forward  simultaneously.  The  freedom  of  the  strokes  could  only 
result  from  long  practice ;  and  we  may  infer  that  the  manufacture  of  pipes 
had  a  distinct  place  in  the  industrial  organization  of  the  Mound  Builders." 
—  S.  &  D.,  267. 

The  length  of  time  necessary  for  completing  such  a  piece 
of  work  has  been  greatly  over-estimated. 


Claims  for  European  Work  on  Pipes.  587 

"  It  has  been  commonly  supposed  that  to  make  a  stone  pipe  required 
weeks  if  not  months  of  patient  labor.  The  writer  has,  however,  demon- 
strated that  with  primitive  tools,  picking,  grinding,  and  drilling,  almost 
any  pipe,  such  as  those  which  have  been  used  by  American  Indians, 
could  be  completed  in  less  than  three  days'  work  and  the  more  ordinary 
ones  in  a  few  hours."  —  McGuire,  396. 

Yet,  after  this  positive  statement  as  to  the  possibility  of 
making  the  pipes  in  a  short  time,  and  describing  the  manner  in 
which  he  himself  pecked  and  ground  various  forms  of  ancient 
art,  McGuire  undertakes  to  prove  that  the  aborigines  had  no 
hand  in  the  manufacture  of  those  in  use  among  them  even 
befo-re  the  mounds  were  built. 

Among  the  Squier  and  Davis  finds  now  in  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  in  New  York,  there  is  "enough  material  to  demon- 
strate that  the  technical  work  on  the  curved  base  pipes,  which  have  caused 
so  much  wonder  for  the  last  forty  years,  is  of  a  very  superior  order. 
The  artistic  skill  of  those  making  them  is  evidenced  in  every  line  of  the 
pipes  and  of  their  ornamentation.  The  bowls  have  been  perforated  by 
means  of  hollow  metal  drill  points  and  the  small  stem  holes  by  solid 
points ;  the  scales  on  the  frogs  and  the  feathers  of  the  birds  are  cut  with 
an  accuracy  and  delicacy  of  detail  in  thin,  sharp  lines  which  appears  to 
indicate  the  use  of  sharp  pointed  tools.  The  head  of  an  Indian,  the  bowl 
of  which  is  drilled  from  the  top  of  the  head  down  by  means  of  a  thin 
tubular  drill,  the  platform  being  broken  off  on  both  sides,  is  a  well  executed 
likeness  of  an  American  Indian,  while  certain  incised  lines  upon  his  face 
are  probably  intended  to  represent  the  lines  of  paint  or  tattooing.  These 
lines  are  cut  in  sharply  and  deeply  and  it  is  an  artistic  production.  A 
few  of  the  surface  lines  of  this  pipe  have  first  been  incised  and  subse- 
quently partially  obliterated  by  grinding  and  polishing,  but  yet  remain 
sufficiently  clear  to  suggest  the  use  of  the  steel  file.  The  whole  effect  of 
this  head  is  calculated  to  impress  one  who  carefully  examines  it  with  the 
idea  that  it  is  the  work  of  a  skillful  European  carver."  —  McGuire,  516. 

"  The  specimens  of  pipes  in  the  collection  of  the  U.  S.  National 
Museum  of  the  mound  type  *  *  *  have  been  examined  closely  for 
surface  indications  of  tool  marks,  which  were  found  in  most  instances, 
and  suggest  the  presence  of  the  metal  file  of  the  whites."  —  McGuire,  527. 

"  On  a  typical  mound  pipe  found  in  a  mound  in  Clarke  county, 
Ohio,  coniposed  of  a  soft  white  stone  —  possibly  limestone,  the  marks  of 
a  file  on  the  bowl  and  stem  are  in  places  almost  too  distinct  to  be  mis- 
taken." —  McGuire,  514,  condensed. 

"The  polishing;  the  apparent  file  marks;  the  fine  lines;  the  inlaid 
eyes;  the  carving  in  the  round;  the  objects  of  copper  covered  with 
silver  found  in  contact  with  them ;  and  the  finding  in  the  mounds  articles 
of  undoubted  European  origin  —  are  all  suggestive  of  the  comparative 
modern  date  of  the  pipes  of  the  curved  base  mound  type.     It  does  not  of 


588  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

necessity  follow  that  these  pipes  were  of  foreign  manufacture,  but  prob- 
ably they  were  the  handiwork  of  fur  traders  and  hunters  catering  to  native 
trade  demands/'  —  McGuire,  632. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  McGuire  did  not  confine  himself  to 
the  recital  of  his  excellent  and  instructive  work,  in  showing  how 
the  various  implements  could  be  shaped,  drilled,  and  polished,  with 
no  other  tools  than  lie  at  the  hand  of  any  savage.  Unless  it 
bears  at  the  same  time  other  indications  of  modern  work,  there 
are  no  scratches  at  all  resembling  the  mark  of  a  file  on  any 
so-called  Indian  relic  in  the  Museum,  which  may  not  be  pro- 
duced with  a  piece  of  hard  gritty  sandsto-ne.  Besides,  exactly 
similar  marks  occur  in  parts  of  the  specimen  which  can  not  be 
reached  with  either  the  round  or  the  flat  face  of  a  file. 

No  "  articles  of  undoubted  European  origin "  have  been 
found  in  those  ancient  mounds  oi  Ohio  which  have  furnished 
the  effigy  or  monitor  pipes. 

''Fur  traders  and  hunters"!  And  just  before  he  speaks 
of  "  technical  work  *  *  of  a  very  superior  order  "  !  "  artistic 
skill  *  *  in  every  line  "  !  "  skillful  European  carver  "  !  His 
other  "  suggestions  "  may  be  passed  by  as  irrelevant ;  for,  except- 
ing the  copper,  he  has  proven  that  primitive  artisans  could  ac- 
complish them  all  with  primitive  tools,  by  doing  it  himself  in 
primitive  ways. 

Others  besides  McGuire  have  maintained  the  theory  that  not 
only  pipes  but  the  various  ceremonial  stones,  copper  ornaments, 
even  grooved  axes  and  celts,  were  made  by  white  men  for  trading 
to  the  Indians.  It  is  not  easy  to  have  the  patience  to  contradict 
such  assertions.  As  to  a  majority  of  these  things,  they  are  made 
of  stone  or  metal  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  finished  articles. 
For  the  most  part  the  materials  are  not  to  be  obtained  in  those 
portions  of  Europe  where  the  early  settlers  and  traders  procured 
their  goods  for  traffic  with  the  American  natives.  The  objects 
themselves  are  unlike  anything  in  other  quarters  of  the  globe. 
There  is  no  mention  of  their  importation  in  the  accounts  of 
Jesuits,  or  explorers  of  any  nation,  most  of  whom  recorded 
minute,  even  trivial,  circumstances  concerning  their  dealings  and 
the  sort  of  trinkets  the  Indians  desired.  They  are  described  in 
histories  and  diaries  of  the  earliest  pioneers,  as  among  the  novel- 
ties in  possession  of  different  tribes.  In  several  narratives  of  two 
or  three  centuries  ago  are  related  the  processes  by  which  arrows, 


EfUgy  Pipes.  589 

beads,  tomahawks,  pipes,  and  other  things  were  perfected. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  face  of  all  this,  we  are  asked  to  believe  that 
immediately  upon  the  discovery  of  America,  Europeans  pro- 
vided themselves  with  material  from  regions  which  no  white  man 
saw  until  a  century  later;  made  this  material  into  thousands  of 
articles,  in  scores  of  patterns  hitherto  unknown  and  unthought  of 
by  any  one  in  the  world ;  and  palmed  these  articles  off  on  Indians 
to  whom  they  co-uld  have  no  possible  meaning,  and,  except  the 
pipes,  be  of  no  practical  use.  This,  too,  when  they  had  great 
stores  of  knives,  hatchets,  kettles,  guns,  and  novelties  which  would 
be  eagerly  bought  up  at  exorbitant  prices ! 

Like  some  "discoverers"  of  inscribed  tablets,  such  teleolo- 
gists  "  prove  too  much  ".  There  seems  to  be  a  strange  unwilling- 
ness to  admit  that  Indians  were  capable  of  the  mechanical  and 
artistic  skill  involved  in  the  manufacture  of  monitor  and  effigy 
pipes,  or  in  fact  of  any  thing  else  that  pleases  the  eye.  It  is 
insisted  that  this  delicacy  of  detail  and  perfection  of  finish  must 
be  ascribed  to  a  more  intelligent  race.  Formerly  they  were  held 
to  be  a  proof  of  an  extinct  race  with  a  higher  grade  of  culture. 

"  The  only  fair  test  of  the  relative  degree  of  skill  possessed  by  the 
two  races  would  be  in  a  comparison  of  the  remains  of  the  mounds  with 
the  productions  of  the  Indians  before  the  commencement  of  European 
intercourse.  A  comparison  of  the  works  of  the  latter,  however,  at  any 
period,  would  not  fail  to  exhibit  in  a  striking  light  the  greatly  superior 
skill  of  the  ancient  people."  —  S.  &  D.,  230. 

Now,  since  it  is  known  that  modern  Indians  are  quite 
expert  at  such  things,  it  is  claimed  that  all  the  finer  mound 
relics  were  made  by  white  men.  If  this  can  be  established,  then 
there  will  be  no  question  that  the  mounds  and  other  earthworks 
are  of  recent  origin ;  which  is  the  point  these  advocates  are  trying 
to  make. 

To  assist  the  reader  in  arriving  at  a  clearer  perception  of 
the  merits  of  this  triangular  controversy,  there  will  be  given 
copies  of  some  of  the  more  important  engravings  illustrating 
specimens  obtained  from  mounds  by  Squier  and  Davis.  That 
portion  C'f  the  text  w^hich  is  in  quotation  marks  is  a  compendium 
or  resume  of  their  descriptive  explanation.  It  will  not,  in  all 
cases,  be  exact  as  a  quotation,  but  is  so  denoted  in  order  to  dis- 
tinguish their  text  from  the  additio-ns  or  comments  made  on  it. 


590  Archaeological  History,  of  Ohio. 

When   quotations   from   any   other   author   appear,   the   proper 
credit  will  be  given. 

The  "  human  effigies  "  will  be  first  presented. 

Figure  192  (S.  &  D.,  244,  Fig.  142)  "  is  a  hard,  compact,  black  stone. 
The  holes  in  the  head-dress  were  filled  with  pearls." 

Figure  193  (S.  &  D.,  244,  Fig.  143)  "is  a  compact  yellowish  stone. 
The  base  is  of  plaster  to  hold  it  erect.  The  ears  were  each  perforated; 
and  from  the  strongly  attached  oxide  of  copper  at  these  points,  were 
probably  ornamented  with  rings  of  that  metal." 

Figure  194  (S.  &  D.,  245,  Fig.  144)  "is  of  the  same  material  as 
Figure  143"  [193.] 

Figure  195   (S.  &  D.,  245,   Fig.  145)  "is  evidently  that  of  a  female. 

"  The  markings  upon  the  faces  of  two  of  these  sculptures  may  be 
taken  as  representing  paint  lines  or  some  description  of  tattooing.  This 
is  an  Indian  feature;  but  the  singular  head  dresses  bear  little  resemblance 
to  those  of  the  Indians  so  far  as  we  know  them." 

Figure  196  (S.  &  D.,  247,  Fig.  146)  "is  carved  from  alight-colored 
sandstone;  it  was  found  while  digging  a  mill  race,  three  feet  below  the 
surface,  near  Tippecanoe,  Miami  county." 

Figure  197  (S.  &  D.,  247,  Fig.  147)  "is  made  from  fine  porphyry 
of  a  greenish-brown  or  lead-colored  ground.  The  ears  display  the  usual 
marks  of  perforation." 

Figure  198  (S.  &  D.,  248,  Fig.  148)  "very  closely  resembles  Figure 
146  [196].  A  large  serpent  is  folded  around  the  neck.  It  is  of  compact 
red  sandstone,  six  inches  in  length,  and  was  found  on  the  banks  of  Paint 
Creek,  a  mile  from  Chillicothe." 

"  A  stone  *  idol '  was  found  near  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  River. 
It  represents  a  human  figure  in  a  squatting  attitude,  the  arms  clasped 
aroimd  the  knees,  upon  which  the  chin  is  resting.  This  is  the  common 
position  of  the  North  American  Indians,  when  seated  around  the  fires  in 
their  wigwams.  It  seems  most  likely  that  these  rough  sculptures  have  a 
comparatively  recent  date,  and  are  the  remains  of  tribes  found  in  posses- 
sion of  the  country  by  the  whites.  As  works  of  art  they  are  immeasurably 
inferior  to  the  relics  from  the  mounds."  —  S.  &  D.,  249. 

Figure  199  (S.  &  D.,  150,  Fig.  250)  "is  of  sandstone,  and  was 
plowed  up  near  Lawrenceburg,  Indiana.  It  is  twelve  inches  long  and 
weighs  nearly  fifty  pounds." 

Figure  200  (S.  &  D.,  251,  Figs.  151  and  152)  represents  "the  front 
and  profile  of  an  image  of  sandstone,  six  inches  long,  deeply  grooved  on 
the  back.     It  was  found  in  Belmont  county,  nearly  opposite  Wheeling." 

"  Most  of  the  mound  sculptures  are  from  a  red  porphyry,  filled  with 
small  white  and  blue  granules;  sandstone,  limestone,  etc. —  S.  &  D.,  254. 

Other  forms  will  now  be  presented. 

Figure  201  (S.  &  D.,  257,  Fig.  161)  "is  a  very  spirited  representa- 
tion of  the  head  of  the  elk,  although  it  is  not  minutely  accurate."  [It 
might,  with  equal  propriety,  be  called  a  grey-hound.] 


EMgy  Pipes. 


591 


Figure  192. 


Figure   193. 


Figure  194, 
Effigy    pipes.    Human    Heads. 


592 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  196  —  Effigy  Pipe.    Human  Mead  on  Body  of  an  Animal. 


Figure  197  —  Effigy  Pipe.    Human  Head  on  Body  of  a  Bird. 


Effigies. 


593 


Figure  198  —  EfEgy   Pipe.    Human  Head  with   Coiled   Snake* 


Figure  199  —  Human  Face,   in  Stone. 


694 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure   200  — Human   Face  In   Stone.  Figure    201  — Effigy    Pipe.    The    "Elk. 


Figure   202  —  Effigy    Pipe.    The    Wildcat. 


i^igure  203  — Effigy  Pipe.    The   Otter. 


Effigy  Pipes. 


695 


Figure  204  — The  Heron, 


Figure  205  — The  Eagle  or  Hawk. 


Figure   206  —  The    Buzzard. 


596  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Figure  202  (S.  &  D.,  257,  Fig.  159)  shows  "the  Wild  Cat  — one  of 
a  large  number  of  this  animal  and  others  of  the  same  genus.  Most  of 
these  are  exquisitely  carved  from  a  red,  granulated  porphyry,  of  exceeding 
hardness — so  hard,  indeed,  as  to  turn  the  edge  of  the  best  tempered  knife." 

Figure  203  (S.  &D.,  257,  Fig.  156).  "  The  otter.  The  flattened  head, 
small  mouth,  almost  imperceptible  ears,  rounded  body,  and  short  but 
strong  and  fin-like  legs,  no  less  than  the  attitude  of  the  figure,  enable 
us  to  recognize  at  once  the  most  active,  courageous,  and  voracious  of  the 
indigenous  amphibious  animals." 

Figure  204  (S.  &  D.,  259,  Fig.  164)  "  is  the  tufted  heron.  The  minut- 
est features  are  shown ;  the  articulations  of  the  legs  of  the  bird,  as  also 
the  gills,  fins,  and  scales  of  the  fish,  are  represented.  It  is  carved  from  the 
red  and  speckled  porphyry.  As  a  work  of  art  it  is  incomparably  superior 
to  any  remains  of  the  existing  tribes  of  Indians.  The  engraving,  in  point 
of  spirit,  falls  far  short  of  the  original." 

The  pipe  from  the  "  Adena  mound,"  shown  in  the  frontis- 
piece, is  made  of  material  more  closely  answering  to  their  de- 
scription of  *'  porphyry  "  than  anything  else  discovered.  It  is  a 
kind  of  clay-stone,  with  a  hardness  not  exceeding  4,  and  easy  to 
carve. 

Figure  205  (S.  &  D.,  259,  Fig.  165^  "  is  probably  some  variety  of  the 
eagle  or  hawk.  The  eyes  of  the  bird  were  composed  of  small  pearls,  in- 
serted about  half  their  depth  in  the  stone.  Pearls  seems  to  have  consti- 
tuted the  eyes  of  nearly  all  the  birds." 

Figure  206  (S.  &  D.,  Fig.  171)  "of  compact  limestone,  is  probably 
intended  to  represent  the  turkey  buzzard." 

Figure  207  (S.  &  D.,  265,  Fig.  172)  "The  paroquet.  The  engraving, 
though  very  good,  fails  to  do  justice  to  the  original." 

The  next  three  figures  of  Squier  and  Davis  (omitted  here),  "are 
probably  intended  to  represent  a  bird  of  the  same  variety "  as  figure 
207 ;    but  none  of  them  have  much  resemblance  to  it  or  to  one  another. 

Figure  208  (S.  &  D.,  265,  Fig.  176)  "seems  to  have  been  ground  or 
rubbed  into  its  present  shape,  and  is  yet  unpolished." 

Figure  209  (S.  &  D.,  265,  Fig.  177)  "  is  in  an  unfinished  state.  The 
lines  are  sharply  graved  in  the  stone." 

Figure  210  (S.  &  D.,  266,  Fig.  178)   is  "the  Toucan." 

Figure  211  (S.  &  D.,  266,  Fig.  179)  "is  of  limestone.  It  is  uncer- 
tain what  bird  it  is  intended  to  represent." 

Figure  212  (S.  &  D.,  267,  Fig.  180).  "  The  two  heads  here  presented, 
probably  intended  to  represent  the  eagle,  are  far  superior  in  point  of 
finish,  spirit,  and  truthfulness,  to  any  miniature  carvings  ancient  or  mod- 
ern, which  have  fallen  under  the  notice  of  the  authors." 

Figure  213  (S.  &  D.,  268,  Fig.  183)  "  represents  the  toad.  The  folds 
and  lines  are  clearly  cut  with  some  sort  of  graver.  The  marks  of  the  im- 
plement chipping  out  portions  a  fourth  of  an  inch  in  length,  are  distinct" 


Eifigy  Pipes. 


597 


Figure  207  — The   Paroquet 


Figure  208.    Unfinished. 


Figure    209.    Unfinished. 


598 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


Figure  210.    The   Toucan. 


Figure   211.    Unnamed. 


Figure    212.    Eagles. 


EMgy  Pipes. 


599 


Figure   213.    The   Toad. 


Figure    214.    Possibly    the    Groundhog. 


Figure  215  — Possibly  Hawk  or  Eagle, 


600 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure   216  —  Unnamed. 


■■■■■■■■■■iiWttili 

Figure    217  —  Coiled    Rattlesnake. 


Figure  218  —  Said  to  be  an  OwL 


Materials  of  Which  the  EMgy  Pipes  are  Made.  601 

"  Two  sculptures  of  the  alligator  have  been  found,  but  much  broken 
up  by  the  fire."  —  S.  &  D,  268. 

Four  other  carvings  of  this  nature  are  shown  in  figure  214 
(S.  &  D.,  figure  157),  which  may  be  intended  for  a  groundhog; 
figure  215  (S.  &  D.,  figure  166),  a  hawk  or  eagle;  figure  216 
(S.  &  D.,  figure  167),  probably  some  song-bird;  and  figure  217 
(S.  &  D.,  figure  186),  the  rattlesnake. 

Figure  218  (S.  &  D.,  figure  123)  is  said  by  Squier  and 
Davis  to  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  an  owl,  on  its  back,  in  an 
attitude  of  defiance.  If  the  sculpture  is  intended  for  that  bird,  the 
species  is  now  extinct. 

"  The  lines  indicating  the  folds  in  the  skin  of  animals,  and  the 
feathers  of  birds,  are  not  ground  in,  but  cut,  evidently  to  the  entire  depth, 
at  a  single  stroke.  Sometimes  the  tool  has  slipped  by,  indicating  that  it 
was  held  and  used  after  the  manner  of  the  gravers  of  the  present  day." 
—  S.  &  D.,  273. 

The  last  paragraph  is  sufficient  evidence  that  some,  at  least, 
of  the  pipes,  and  presumably  other  specimens,  were  much  softer 
when  made  that  at  the  time  they  were  exhumed.  Whether 
this  induration  was  produced  by  intentional  burning  or  as  a 
natural  result  of  exposure  and  use,  is  immaterial ;  the  main  point 
is  that  it  took  place. 

As  to  the  designs,  note  what  Squier  himself  says  in  regard  to 
pipes  found  at  the  sites  of  ancient  Iroquois  towns. 

"  The  pipes  are  mostly  composed  of  clay,  regularly  and  often  fanci- 
fully moulded,  and  ornamented  in  various  ways.  *  *  *  Some,  indeed, 
are  so  hard,  smooth,  and  symmetrical,  as  almost  to  induce  doubts  of  their 
aboriginal  origin.  Some  of  the  terra  cottas,  other  than  pipes,  are  really 
very  creditable  specimens  of  art,  and  compare  favorably  with  any  of  the 
productions  of  the  aborigines  which  have  fallen  under  my  notice.  They 
are,  with  few  exceptions,  representations  of  animals ;  with  the  minutest 
features,  as  well  as  the  peculiar  habits  of  which,  the  American  Indians  had, 
.from  long  observation,   a  thorough  acquaintance."  —  Squier,   N.   Y.,    13. 

It  is  true  the  last  are  made  of  clay;  while  it  is  a  common 
assertion  that  mound  pipes  ''  are  usually  made  of  stone  o-f  great 
hardness." —  Barber,  265. 

Fortunately  we  are  not  without  definite  evidence  in  respect 
to  this  phase  C'f  the  question.  With  a  few  exceptions,  the  col- 
lection of  Squier  and  Davis  was  sold  in  England,  where  a  very 
careful  and  methodical  examination  was  made  of  it.  The  result, 
briefly,  is  here  presented,  as  compiled  from  Stevens. 


602  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"The  materials  of  the  Ohio  pipes  and  other  objects  are  almost 
exclusively  of  four  kinds;  or  rather  they  may  be  classed  under  four  dis- 
tinct heads,  although  two  or  more  varieties  of  some  of  the  materials 
occur : 

'*  A.  A  hard  and  siliceous  clay  slate,  approaching  more  or  less 
closely  in  different  specimens  the  whetslate  of  Cotta. 

"  B.     An  argillaceous     ironstone,  usually  variolite. 

"  C.     A  pearly-brown  ferruginous  chlorite. 

"  D.  Calcareous  marls  of  variable  composition,  and  marly  lime- 
stones. 

"  A.  Whetslate.  I  have  particularly  examined  a  fragment  of  '  gor- 
get'  made  of  [whetslate].  It  has  the  hardness  of  6.5  on  the  mineralogical 
scale.  *  *  *  xhe  material  is  a  more  less  highly  siliceous  variety  of 
clay  slate  almost  perfectly  compact,  and  often  very  distinctly  stratified 
with  dark  bands,  in  which  most  of  the  iron  of  the  rock  seems  collected. 
It  breaks  with  an  irregular  conchoidal  fracture,  almost  without  a  trace 
of  the  peculiar  cleavage  known  as  slaty.  It  generally  forms  a  good 
hone  stone.  The  skill  with  which  the  Mound  Biulders  have  pierced  and 
worked  this  hard  and  tough  stone  is  remarkable. 

"  B.  Argillaceous  iron  stone.  This  stone  is  not  a  definite  mineral 
but  a  mixture  of  rninerals  —  a  rock.  Its  hardness  varies  in  different  parts 
of  the  same  specimen  —  the  harder  parts  approaching  6,  and  the  softer 
parts  not  exceeding  4.5.  Some  of  the  objects  fashioned  from  this  ferru- 
ginous stone  are  much  fissured  internally,  and  blacker  inside  than  out.. 
Some   [examples]   approach  in  structure  to  Catlinite." 

"  C.  Chlorite.  The  hardness  of  the  particular  piece  of  Ohio  chlo- 
rite which  I  have  specially  studied  is  2.75. 

"  D.  Carcareous  marls  and  marly  limestones.  From  their  compo- 
sition and  softness,  they  would  offer  less  difficulty  in  manufacture,  but 
would  be  more  liable  to  injury  both  by  moisture  and  fire  than  the  materials 
already  described.  Their  hardness  varies  somewhat,  but  is  never  high^ 
One  specimen  was  2.3;  another  2.0. —  Stevens,  414-6,  condensed. 

Under  each  division  Stevens  gives,  by  numbers,  "character- 
istic specimens  of  the  material " ;  but  in  the  absence  of  an  illus- 
trated catalogue,  there  is  no  way  of  determining  them,  except  in 
a  few  cases  where  reference  is  made  to  the  descriptions  by  Squier 
and  Davis.  These  are  given  below;  the  numbers,  both  of  page 
and  figure,  are  those  of  Squier  and  Davis.  The  capital  letter 
following  each  item  corresponds  with  the  classification  of  mater- 
ial by  Stevens,  as  given  on  pages  421  to  511  of  his  work. 

"  Toucan,"  page  151.    D. 

"  Toads,"  figure  183.     B  and  D. 

"  Swallow,"  figure  167.     B. 

"  Tufted  cherry-bird,"  figure  174.     B. 

"  Heron  striking  fish,"  figure  164.     B. 

"  Bird's  head,"  page  267,  figure  181.    D, 


Scale  of  Hardness  of  Minerals.  603 

"  Bird,"  page  266,  figure  179.    D. 
"  Toucan  eating  from  hand,"  page  266,  figure  178.     B. 
"  Buzzard,"  figure  171.     D. 

•'  Eagles  or  hawks  tearing  small  bird  to  pieces,"  page  259,  figure  165. 
B  and  D. 

"  Rodent,"  figure  157.     B. 

"  Beaver,"  figure  155.     D. 

"Elk,"  figure  151.     D. 

"  Manatees,"  figures  153  and  154.     B  and  D. 

"  Walrus,"  page  271,  figure  192.     B. 

"Wild-cat,"  figure  160.     B. 

"  Wild-cat,"  figure  159.     B. 

"Human  head,"  pages  244-5,  figure  143.     D. 

"  Human  head,"  page  245,  figure  144.     D. 

"  Human  head,"  pages  245-6,  figure  145.     D. 

"Snake  pipe,"  figure  186.     D. 

"  Discoids,"  pages  221-2.     C. 

"  Tube,"  pages  224-5,  figure  122.     A. 

"  Human-headed  bird,"  page  248,  figure  148.     B. 

"  Elk-head,"  page  258,  figure  163.     C. 

"  Pulley-rings,"  page  224.     C. 

"Whetslate"  is  thus  defined: 

"  Whetslate,  Whetstone,  Hone,  Oilstone,  Novaculite.  —  This  is  a 
very  highly  siliceous  clay-slate,  perfectly  compact  and  homogeneous. 
Usually  only  indistinctly  of  slaty  cleavage,  and  its  fracture  often  conchoi- 
dal  and  even  splintery.  Used  for  sharpening  knives  and  other  instru- 
ments."—Von  Cotta,  265. 

From  this  description,  it  will  be  seen  that  "  whetslate  "  is 
a  very  elastic  term.  In  some  forms  it  seems  to  resemble  the 
medium  grades  of  argillite ;  in  others,  it  is  nearly  ,or  quite  as  hard 
as  glass.  Ordinary  school  or  roofing-slate  is  a  kind  of  argillite ; 
some  is  softer,  some  much  harder.  There  is  comparatively 
little  of  it  which  can  not  be  cut  with  a  knife.  "  Whetslate  "  in  any 
of  the  fo-rms  named  by  Cotta,  while  quite  hard  from  the  silica  or 
quartz  contained  in  it,  has  for  the  same  reason  a  fine  close  grain 
which  allows  it  to  be  readily  pecked  into  shape  with  a  stone 
hammer,  or  rubbed  down  with  the  coarser  grades  of  sand-rock, 
such  as  grindstones  are  made  o-f.  It  can  also  be  polished  with 
fine  sandstone,  and  easily  so  with  powdered  quartz. 

It  may  assist  in  comparing  these  substances  named  by 
Stevens,  to  remember  that  in  the  scale  of  hardness  of  minerals, 
talc  ranks  as  i ;  it  can  be  scratched  with  the  finger  nail.  Gypsum 
is  second ;  it  is  the  basis  of  plaster  of  paris,  and  about  as  hard  as 


*^^^  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

chalk.  ^  Calcite,  or  the  crystal  of  lime,  is  3  ;  it  is  a  little  harder  than 
"tailor's  chalk".  Feldspar  is  6,  and  quartz  7;  common  glass 
comes  between  these.  Diamond,  the  hardest  substance  known,  is 
10.  It  will  be  seen  that  very  few  mound  specimens  are  really 
hard,  as  is  so  confidently  asserted.  Flint,  also  quartz  sand,  both 
with  a  hardness  of  7,  will,  when  properly  handled,  cut  down 
any  of  the  polished  pieces. 

Although  the  minerals  of  which  the  Mound  Builders'  speci- 
mens are  made,  are  no  more  difficult  of  manipulation  than  those 
used  by  other  people,  ancient  and  modern ;  and  the  tools  of  the 
latter  were  no  better  adapted  to  producing  delicate  results  than 
were  those  of  the  former ;  none  the  less  it  remains  a  fact  that  the 
work  is  most  remarkable  to  be  accomplished  by  such  means, 
and  argues  well  for  the  "  artist's  eye  "  and  "  skillful  hand  "  of  the 
red  man  who  performed  it  so  successfully. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  "argues  from  the  excellence  of  the  workmanship 
in  pipe-carving,  that  a  sub-division  of  labor  had  already  begun  with  the 
Mound  Builders;  that  [mound  number  8,  of  the  'Mound  City'  group, 
where  so  many  pipes  were  unearthed]  may  be  but  the  sepulchre  of  some 
celebrated  pipe-maker  by  profession  whose  surviving  friends  would  place 
m  his  grave,  not  one  or  two  pipes,  but  his  whole  stock-in-trade;  in  the 
belief  that  he  would  gain  his  living  by  bartering  pipes  in  the  land  of 
spirits  as  he  had  already  done  in  this  world."  —  Stevens,  349. 

This  same  belief  would  account  for  so  many  beautiful  speci- 
mens being  ruined  or  almost  destroyed  by  fire.  Where  crema- 
tion was  a  common  practice,  it  would  be  quite  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  the  possessions  of  one  whose  body  was  thus  disposed  of, 
must  be  treated  in  the  same  manner. 

Squier  and  Davis,  on  page  26y,  express  the  opinion  that  such 
specialized  industries  had  arisen  among  the  Mound  Builders. 

SCULPTURES. 

Speaking  of  the  various  carvings,  but  particularly  of  the 
effigy  pipes  which  they  exhumed  at  "  Mound  City  ",  Squier  and 
Davis  remark  that 

"  Some  of  the  sculptures  have  a  value,  so  far  as  ethnological  research 
is  concerned,  much  higher  than  they  can  claim  as  mere  works  of  art. 
This  value  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  they  faithfully  represent  animals 
and  birds  peculiar  to  other  latitudes,  thus  establishing  a  migration,  a 
very  extensive  intercommunication,  or  a  contemporaneous  existence  of 
the  same  race  over  a  vast  extent  of  country."  —  S.  &  D.,  242. 


Character  of  the  Sculpture  of  Effigy  Pipes,  605* 

Overdrawn  as  this  statement  is,  it  is  unwarrantably  and 
unreasonably  exaggerated  by  Wilson. 

"  By  the  fidelity  of  the  representations  of  so  great  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects copied  from  animal  life,  they  furnish  evidence  of  a  knowledge  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  of  the  fauna  peculiar  not  only  to  southern  but  to. 
tropical  latitudes,  extending  beyond  the  Isthmus  into  the  southern  con- 
tinent; and  suggestive  either  of  arts  derived  from  a  foreign  source,  and 
of  an  intimate  intercourse  maintained  with  the  central  regions  where  the; 
civilization  of  ancient  America  attained  its  highest  development;  or  else- 
indicative  of  migration,  and  an  intrusion  into  the  northern  continent,  of 
the  race  of  the  ancient  graves  of  Central  and  South  America,  bringing 
with  them  the  arts  of  the  tropics,  and  models  derived  from  the  animals, 
familiar  to  their  fathers  in  the  parent  land  of  the  race." — Wilson,  D., 
I,  475. 

Henshaw,  who  is  a  naturalist  of  reputation  and  holds  high 
rank  as  an  ornithologist,  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the  figures  in 
''  Ancient  Monuments  "  and  of  casts  of  the  pipes — the  originals 
being  beyond  his  reach.  Some  excerpts  from  his  report  will  be 
given;  merely  enough  to  show  his  conclusions  and  some  of  the 
grounds  on  which  they  are  based. 

"  In  considering  the  degree  of  skill  exhibited  by  the  mound  sculptors, 
in  their  delineation  of  the  features  and  characteristics  of  animals,  it  is. 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  notice  that  the  carvings  of  birds  and  animals, 
which  have  evoked  the  most  extravagant  expressions  of  praise  as  to  the 
exactness  with  which  nature  has  been  copied  are  uniformly  those  which, 
owing  to  the  possession  of  some  unusual  or  salient  characteristic,  are  ex- 
ceedingly easy  of  imitation.  The  stout  body  and  broad  flat  tail  of  the: 
beaver,  the  characteristic  physiognomy  of  the  wild  cat  and  panther,  sa 
utterly  dissimilar  to  that  of  other  animals,  the  tufted  head  and  fish- 
eating  habits  of  the  heron,  the  raptorial  bill  and  claws  of  the  hawk,  the 
rattle  of  the  rattlesnake,  are  all  features  which  the  rudest  skill  could 
scarcely  fail  to  portray.  It  is  by  the  delineation  of  these  marked  and 
unmistakable  features,  and  not  the  sculptor's  power  to  express  the  sub- 
tlety of  animal  characteristics,  that  enables  the  identity  of  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  the  carvings  to  be  established.  It  is  true  that 
the  contrary  has  often  been  asserted,  and  that  almost  everything  has  been 
claimed  for  the  carvings,  in  the  way  of  artistic  execution,  that  would 
be  claimed  for  the  best  products  of  modern  skill.  Squier  and  Davis  in 
fact  go  so  far  in  their  admiration  (Ancient  Monuments,  p.  272),  as  to  say- 
that,  so  far  as  fidelity  is  concerned,  many  of  them  {i.  e.,  animal  carvings) 
deserve  to  rank  by  the  side  of  the  best  efforts  of  the  artist  naturalists, 
in  our  own  day  —  a  statement  which  is  simply  preposterous.  So  far, 
in  point  of  fact,  is  this  from  being  true  that  an  examination  of  the  series, 
of  animal  sculptures  cannot  fail  to  convince  any  one,  who  is  even  toler- 


606  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

ably  well  acquainted  with  our  common  birds  and  animals,  that  it  is 
simply  impossible  to  recognize  specific  features  in  the  great  majority  of 
them.  They  were  either  not  intended  to  be  copies  of  particular  species, 
or,  if  so  intended,  the  artist's  skill  was  wholly  inadequate  for  his  pur- 
pose." Dr.  Coues  and  Mr.  Ridgway,  two  of  the  ablest  ornithologists  of 
the  United   States,   if  not  of  the  world,  hold,   "precisely  similar  views." 

"  By  the  above  remarks  as  to  the  lack  of  specific  resemblances  in  the 
animal  carvings  it  is  not  intended  to  deny  that  some  of  them  have  been 
executed  with  a  considerable  degree  of  skill  and  spirit,  as  well  as,  within 
certain  limitations  heretofore  expressed,  fidelity  to  nature.  Taking  them 
as  a  whole  it  can  perhaps  be  asserted  that  they  have  been  carved  with 
a  degree  of  skill  considerably  above  the  general  average  of  attainment  in 
art  of  our  Indian  tribes,  but  not  above  the  best  efforts  of  individual 
tribes.  That  they  will  by  no  means  bear  the  indiscriminate  praise  they 
have  received  as  works  of  art  and  as  exact  imitations  of  nature  may 
be  asserted  with  all  confidence." 

"  Many  writers  [believe]  they  owe  their  origin  to  the  artistic  instinct 
alone.  But  there  is  much  in  their  general  appearance  that  suggests  they 
may  have  been  totemic  in  origin.  *  *  *  ^  considerable  number  of 
the  recognizable  birds  and  animals  are  precisely  the  ones  known  to  have 
been  used  as  totems  by  many  tribes  of  Indians."  —  Henshaw,  148  and  150. 

Wilson,  again,  in  speaking  of  "  accurate  miniature  represen- 
tations of"  the  manatee,  cougar,  toucan,  buzzard,  and  paro- 
quet, says 

"  The  majority  of  these  animals  are  not  known  in  the  United  States; 
some  of  them  are  totally  unknown  within  any  part  of  the  North  American 
continent." 

He  also  speaks  of  "the  coast  of  Yucatan  [as]  the  nearest  point  where 
Pyrula  perversa  is  foaind  in  its  native  locality." — Wilson,  I,  219,  272, 
and  477. 

But  the  jaguar  appears  as  far  north  as  the  Red  River  of  Louisiana; 
the  cougar  was  a  resident  of  the  whole  of  North  America ;  the  toucan  is 
found  in  Southern  Mexico ;  the  buzzard  [vulture]  is  common  over  al- 
most the  entire  United  States;  the  paroquet  recently  ranged  as  far  north 
as  New  York,  Michigan,  and  Nebraska;  while  Pyrula  (now  Biisycon 
perversa)  "  extends  along  the  coast  up  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  with  rare 
specimens  as  far  north  as  Beaufort,  N.  C.  Moreover,  archaeologists  have 
usually  confounded  this  species  with  the  Busycon  carica,  which  is  of  com- 
mon occurrence  in  the  mouads.  The  latter  is  found  as  far  north  as  Cape 
Cod."  —  Henshaw,  142-3. 

"  The  a  priori  probability  that  the  toucan  was  known  to  the  Mound 
Builders  is,  of  course,  much  less  than  that  the  manatee  was,  since  no 
species  of  toucan  occurs  farther  north  than  Southern  Mexico.  *  *  * 
It  is  a  little  perplexing  to  find  at  the  outset  that  Squier  and  Davis,  not 
content  with  one  toucan,  have  figured  three,  and  these  differing  from  each 


The  Toucans. 


607 


Figure  219. 


Figure  220. 


Figure  221. 
So-called  "  Toucan  "  Pipes,  and  the  Toucan. 


608  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

other  so  widely  as  to  be  referable,  according  to  modern  ornithological' 
ideas,  to  very  distinct  orders."  The  first,  shown  in  figure  [219],  "is. 
vaguely  suggestive  of  a  young  eagle.  *  *  *  The  position  of  the  nos- 
trils, however,  and  the  contour  of  the  mandibles,  together  with  the  posi- 
tion of  the  eyes,  show  clearly  enough  that  it  is  a  likeness  of  no  bird 
known  to  ornithology."  The  second,  represented  in  figure  [220,  (S.  & 
D.,  fig.  169)]  "is  a  common  crow  or  a  raven,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
happily  executed  of  the  avian  sculptures."  The  third,  which  is  repro- 
duced in  figure  [210]  "in  no  wise  resembles  a  toucan.  Its  long  legs  and 
proportionally  long  toes,  coupled  with  the  rather  long  neck  and  bill,  in- 
dicate with  certainty  a  wading  bird  of  some  kind,  and  in  default  of  any- 
thing that  comes  nearer,  an  ibis  may  be  suggested;  [but  if  so  intended] 
the  ibis  family  has  no  reason  to  feel  complimented."  —  Henshaw,  135-6. 

In  regard  to  the  toucans,  Squier  and  Davis  say  of  the 
first  (page  194)  "  It  represents  the  head  of  a  bird,  some- 
what resembling  a  toucan,  and  is  executed  with  much  spirit ". 
Of  the  second  (page  260)  "  It  is  supposed  to  represent  the 
toucan ".  Of  the  third  (page  266)  "  probably  the  toucan ". 
The  reader  may  compare  the  cuts  with  that  of  the  living  toucan,, 
as  shown  in  figure  221. 

It  is  scarcely  fair  to  turn  these  cautious,  tentative  sur- 
mises into  definite  assertions  and  then  vigorously  assail  them. 
In  all  conscience,  Squier  and  Davis  made  enough  mistakes, 
such  as  are  inevitable  to  all  pioneers  in  any  scientific  work, 
not  to  mention  the  results  of  carelessness,  without  having  to 
become  responsible  for  erroneous  interpretations  and  ingenious 
perversions  made  by  others  —  compared  with  many  of  which  this 
one  by  Henshaw  is  very  mild. 

Among  the  figures  identified  by  Henshaw,  are  these. 

Of  the  object  shown  in  figure  [207]  Squier  and  Davis  say  on  page  265, 
"  *  Among  the  most  spirited  and  delicately  executed  specimens  of  ancient 
art  found  in  the  mounds,  is  that  of  the  paroquet  here  presented.'  The 
bird  thus  positively  identified  as  a  paroquet  *  *  *  jg  ^ot  even  dis- 
tinctly related  to  the  parrot  family.  It  has  the  bill  of  a  raptorial  bird, 
as  shown  by  the  distinct  tooth,  and  this,  in  connection  with  the  well 
defined  cere,  not  present  in  the  paroquet,  and  the  open  nostril  concealed  by 
feathers  in  the  paroquet,  places  its  identity  as  one  of  the  hawk  tribe 
beyond  question."  —  Henshaw,  140. 

The  specimen  shown  in  figure  [211  (Henshaw  24)]  "of  which  Squier 
and  Davis  say  it  is  uncertain  what  bird  it  is  intended  to  represent,  is 
an  unmistakable  likeness  of  a  woodpecker." 

Figure  [222  (S.  &  D.,  Fig.  173)]  "it  is  claimed  'much  resembles  the 
tufted  cherry-bird,'  which  is  by  no  means  the  case,  as  the  bill  bears  wit- 


Henshaw's  Discussion  of  the  Sculptures,  609 

ness.     It  may  pass,  however,  as  a  badly  executed  likeness  of  the  tufted 
cardinal  grosbeak  or  red-bird." 

Of  figure  [223  (S.  &  D.,  Fig.  170)]  Squier  and  Davis  say  it  '"will 
readily  be  recognized  as  intended  to  represent  the  head  of  the  grouse.' 
The  cere  and  plainly  notched  bill  of  this  carving  clearly  indicate  a  hawk." 


Figure  223  —  Effigy  Pipes.     Wrongly  Identified. 

"  Without  going  into  further  detail  the  matter  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows :  Of  forty-five  of  the  animal  carvings,  including  a  few  of  clay, 
which  are  figured  in  Squier  and  Davis's  works,  eleven  are  left  unnamed 
by  the  authors  as  not  being  recognizable ;  nineteen  are  identified  correctly, 
in  a  general  way,  as  of  a  wolf,  bear,  heron,  toad,  etc. ;  sixteen  are 
demonstrably  wrongly  identified,  leaving  but  five  of  which  the  species  is 
correctly  given.  From  this  showing  it  appears  that  either  the  above 
authors'  zoological  knowledge  was  faulty  in  the  extreme  or  else  the. 
39 


610  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

mound  sculptors'  ability  in  animal  carving  has  been  amazingly  over- 
estimated. However  just  the  first  supposition  may  be,  the  last  is  cer- 
tainly true."  —  Henshaw,  144-5-6-7. 

Henshaw  gives  his  conclusions  as  follows : 

"  That  of  the  carvings  from  the  mounds  which  can  be  identified 
there  are  no  reproductions  of  birds  or  animals  not  indigenous  to  the 
Mississippi  Valley. 

"  That  a  large  majority  of  the  carvings,  instead  of  being,  as  assumed, 
exact  likenesses  from  nature,  possess  in  reality  only  the  most  general 
resemblance  to  the  birds  and  animals  of  the  region  which  they  were 
doubtless  intended  to  represent. 

"  That  there  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  masks  and  sculptures 
of  human  faces  are  more  correct  likenesses  than  are  the  animals  carvings. 

"  That  the  state  of  art-culture  reached  by  the  Mound  Builders,  as 
illustrated  by  their  carvings,  has  been  greatly  overestimated." — Henshaw, 
166. 

THE    MANITUS. 

Squier  and  Davis  claim  to  have  found  seven  sculptured  repre- 
sentations of  the  Manitus  or  sea-cow — "one  of  the  most  singular 
animal  productions  in  the  world  which  naturalists  assume  to 
know  but  little."  They  copy  from  a  work  on  natural  history  a 
full  and  explicit  description  of  the  animal,  and  say : 

"  These  external  features  are  faithfully  and  minutely  exhibited 
in  the  sculptures  from  the  mounds.  Only  one  of  the  sculptures 
exhibits  a  flat,  truncated  tail ;  the  others  are  round.  There  is,  however, 
a  variety  of  the  lamantin  which  has  a  round  tail.  These  singular  relics 
have  been  thus  minutely  noticed,  inasmuch  as  they  have  a  direct  bearing 
upon  some  of  the  questions  connected  with  the  origin  of  the  mounds. 
They  faithfully  represent  animals  found,  (and  only  in  small  numbers,) 
a  thousand  miles  distant,  upon  the  shores  of  Florida.  Either  the  same 
race,  possessing  throughout  a  like  style  of  workmanship,  and  deriving  their 
materials  from  common  source,  existed  contemporaneously  over  the  whole 
range  of  intervening  territory,  and  maintained  a  constant  communication; 
or  else  there  was  at  some  period  a  migration  from  the  south,  bringing 
with  it  characteristic  remains  of  the  land  from  which  it  emigrated.  The 
sculptures  of  the  manitus  are  too  exact  to  have  been  the  production  of 
those  who  were  not  well  acquainted  with  the  animal  and  its  habits."  — 
,S.  &  D.,  251. 

Henshaw  thu^  criticises  the  above  statement;  only  the 
substance  of  his  remarks  is  given. 

"  All  the  sculptures  pronounced  manatees  by  Squier  and  Davis ,  have 
prominent  ears;  yet  the  manatee  has  not  the  slighest  trace  of  a  pinna  or 
external  ear,  a  small  orifice,  like  a  slit,  representing  that  organ.     Further- 


The  Manitus,  Manatee,  Lamantin,  or  Sea-cow.  611 

more,  it  has  instead  of  a  short,  stout  fore  leg,  terminating  in  flexible 
fingers  or  paws,  as  indicated  in  the  several  sculptures,  a  shapeless  paddle- 
like flipper.  Squier  and  Davis  say,  on  page  251,  "Only  one  of  the  sculpt- 
ures exhibits  a  flat  truncated  tail ;  the  others  are  round.  There  is,  how- 
-ever,  a  variety  of  the  lamantin  which  has  a  round  tail,  and  is  distinguished 
as  the  round-tailed  manitus.'  But  this  form  is  found  only  in  Southern 
Africa;  and  at  any  rate,  the  tails  of  the  two  forms  are,  as  far  as  known, 
almost  exactly  alike.  Whether  the  tails  of  the  sculptured  manatees  be 
round  or  flat  matters  little,  however,  since  they  bear  no  resemblance  to 
manatee  tails,  either  of  the  round  or  flat  tailed  varieties,  or,  for  that 
matter,  to  tails  of  any  sort.  In  many  of  the  animal  carvings  the  head 
alone  engaged  the  sculptor's  attention,  the  body  and  members  being 
omitted  entirely  or  else  roughly  blocked  out." — Henshaw,  130,  et  seq. 

Stevens  in  his  description  of  the  so-called  manatee  or  laman- 
tin says : 

"  In  one  particular,  however,  the  sculptors  of  the  mound  period 
committed  an  error.  Although  the  Lamantin  is  strictly  herbivorous,  feed- 
ing chiefly  upon  sub-aqueous  plants  and  littoral  herbs;  yet  upon  one  of 
the  stone  smoking  pipes  this  animal  is  represented  with  a  fish  in  its 
mouth."  —  Stevens,  430. 

This  fact  alone  should  have  convinced  all  who  were  cogni- 
zant of  it,  that  some  other  animal  than  the  manatee  was  intended ; 
especially  so,  those  contending  for  the  ''absolute  fidelity"  of  the 
sculptures.  No  Indian  would  ever  be  guilty  of  such  a  mistake 
in  portraiture.  The  sculpture  (figure  203)  plainly  represents  an 
otter,  not  simply  because  it  has  the  lish  in  its  m^outh,  but  from 
its  close  resemblance  in  other  respects.  In  fact,  Squier  and  Davis 
(page  257)  call  it  such,  and  direct  especial  attention  to  the  points 
of  resemblance.  In  this  instance  it  seems  to  be  Stevens  himself 
who  has  "committed  an  error."  Figure  224  (B.  E.  2,  132,  Fig. 
10)  and  figure  225  (same,' Fig.  11)  present  a  side  view  and  a 
front  view,  respectively,  of  the  only  manatee  which  could  have 
been  known  to  the  North  American  Indians.  Figure  226  (S.  & 
D.,  Fig.  153)  and  figure  227  (S.  &  D.,  Fig.  154)  show  two  of  the 
pipes  exhumed  by  Squier  and  Davis,  and  pronounced  by  them 
accurate  representations  of  the  animal.  In  these  sculptures,  the 
head  and  paws  are  distinctly  otter-like,  while  the  supposed  tail 
which  has  aroused  so  much  discussion  because  it  is  round  instead 
of  flat  as  a  manatee's  tail  should  be,  looks  much  less  like  the  tail 
of  a  manatee  or  of  any  other  animal  than  it  looks  like  the  back  of 
an  otter  just  crawling  out  of  the  water  onto  the  bank.  Henshaw 
seems  not  to  have  noticed  this ;  at  least  he  makes  no  mention  of  it. 


612 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure   227. 
The  Manitus,   and  the  so-called  Manitus  Pipes. 


Effigy  Pipes,   \ ^ .  /\  u/'  V  '^.^  '^ ''. ''  ''6iS ''^ 


Figure  228  —  Head  of  Carnivore  on  Human  Body. 


Figure   229  —  Frog. 


614      :  V  '    :  ;\  ,  Arcjiaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Effigy  Pipes.  ^  ^  A  u/'V  ^  ^'  ^  ^^  >  ^'-615^ 


Figure  231  —  Rude  Effigy  Pipes  of  Stone  and  Clay. 


Figure    232  —  Various    Forms    of    Pipes. 


^6135 '/';'<.  v'  •;  \  ,4r(^liiieQbgical  History  of  Ohio. 


Figtore   233  — Various    Forms    of    Pipes. 


Efngy  Pipes.  617 

The  general  uniformity  in  style,  technique,  and  material,  of 
the  effigy  pipes  from  Mound  City,  forbid  the  belief  that  they 
were  made  in  widely  separated  localities,  or  at  long  intervals  of 
time.  The  whole  lot  pertains  to  one  community  and  one  period. 
The  sculptor  must  have  been  familiar  with  his  models,  else  the 
resemblance  would  be  more  remote  than  it  is.  Consequently  he 
would  carve  images  of  birds  and  mammals  seen  in  Ohio ;  though 
he  may  occasionally  have  essayed  one  which  he  saw  when  on  a 
hunting  or  trading  expedition. 

In  figure  228  is  shown  an  effig}^  pipe,  which  seems  intended 
to  represent  a  human  body  with  the  head  of  a  carnivorous  ani- 
mal, probably  a  bear  or  panther.  Figure  229  is  an  excellent  copy 
of  a  frog.  Figure  230  gives  three  views  of  an  owl-pipe.  Other 
pipes  in  the  collection  of  the  Society  are  presented  in  figures  231, 
232  and  233. 

The  frontispiece  shows  the  "Adena  mound  pipe,"  from  the 
large  mound  on  the  old  Worthington  estate  at  Chillicothe.  It  is 
one  of  the  finest  specimens  ever  exhumed. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


CHIPPED    STONE   ARTICLES. 
SOURCES  OF  RAW  MATERIAL. 

CHIPPED  implements  are  nearly  always  made  of  some  torm 
of  flint,  as  it  is  easily  flaked  and  can  be  brought  to  a 
keen  edge  or  point.  Sometimes  quartz,  quartzite,  argil- 
lite,  or  rock  with  even  coarser  grain  is  used;  but  this  is  infre- 
quent, and  is  due  to  scarcity  of  more  desirable  material. 

By  some  mineralogists  the  term  *'flint"  is  limited  to  the 
nodules  or  concretions  found  in  chalk-beds.  As  this  particular 
variety  does  not  occur  in  the  United  States,  it  is  contended  that 
we  have  no  "true  flint,"  and  sundry  other  names  are  applied  to 
the  allied  forms  belonging  here.  This,  however,  is  a  distinction 
without  a  practical  difference;  while  there  is  wide  diversity  in 
coloring,  due  principally  to  minute  quantities  of  iron  in  combina- 
tion, in  other  respects  purer  varieties  of  the  material  are  much 
the  same  the  world  over.  In  hardness,  chemical  constitution,, 
form  of  fracture,  and  conditions  necessary  for  its  successful 
working  into  useful  shapes,  no  line  is  to  be  drawn  between  the 
flint  of  England,  the  chalcedony  of  Brazil,  and  the  hornstone  of 
Indiana. 

In  the  popular  meaning  of  the  word,  as  used  in  archaeology, 
''flint"  includes  many  forms  of  siliceous  stone,  such  as  chalced- 
ony, jasper,  hornstone,  chert,  basanite,  agate,  and  several  varie- 
ties of  quartz  which  have  no  outward  resemblance  to  the  sub- 
stance whose  name  they  have  borrowed.  The  basis  O'f  all  is 
silex  or  silica  which  is  nearest  its  natural  state  in  quartz  crystaL 
Notwithstanding  their  great  dissimilarity  in  appearance,  the 
principal  difference  in  these  various  minerals,  excepting  the 
last,  consists  in  the  manner  of  their  formation  and  the  foreign 
substances  included  in  them.  Such  impurities,  even  though  they 
may  form  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  stone,  give  rise  to 
infinite  diversity  of  coloring,  and  to  great  difference  in  texture 
upon  exposure  to  air  and  water. 

(618) 


Flint  Ridge.  619 

Flint,  using  the  term  in  the  wide  sense  indicated  above^ 
occurs  in  two  principal  forms.  One  is  a  massive  or  bed  rock, 
similar  to  the  limesto-nes  and  sandstones  with  which  every  one 
is  familiar;  the  other  is  in  rounded  or  flattened  nodules  or  con- 
cretions of  various  sizes  scattered  through  limestone  deposits. 
In  Ohio,  the  latter  seem  to  be  confined  to  the  Devonian  forma- 
tion ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  piece  that  is  suitable  for  flaking. 

The  stratified  or  bedded  flint  is  found  in  almost  every 
county  of  the  State  in  which  the  lower  coal-measure  rocks  come 
to  the  surface.  In  numero-us  places  fragments  detached  from 
these  layers  can  be  picked  up  on  the  ground;  and  at  many 
outcrops  suitable  pieces  could  be  broken  off  fit  for  conversion 
into  weapons ;  but  in  only  a  few  places  do  we  find  evidence 
that  the  ancient  arrow-maker  carried  on  in  a  systematic  manner 
the  labor  of  procuring  a  supply. 

FLINT   RIDGE. 

Foremost  among  places  where  such  operations  were  con- 
ducted is  the  great  flint  deposit  in  Licking  and  Muskingum 
counties  midway  between  Newark  and  Zanesville.  Here  we 
find  quarries,  not  only  the  most  extensive  of  Ohio,  but  in  many 
respects  the  most  interesting  in  the  United  States.  From  pioneer 
days  the  locality  has  been  known  as  ''  Flint  Ridge  ",  and  by  this 
title  it  has  passed  into  the  literature  of  archaeology.  At  present 
it  consists  of  a  narrow  central  ridge  with  a  general  east  and 
west  trend,  from  which  lateral  spurs,  separated  by  deep  ravines, 
branch  off  to  north  and  so'Utli.  This  conformation  is  due  partly 
to  surface  erosion  and  partly  to  the  action  of  underground 
drainage.  The  flint  bed  seems  to  have  covered,  originally,  a 
crescent-shaped  area  at  least  ten  miles  in  length  by  about  three 
in  greatest  breadth ;  there  are  detached  knobs  at  a  greater  dis- 
tance from  the  main  body,  which  may  once  have  formed  a 
part  of  it,  or  may  be  of  independent  formation.  A  map  of 
the  principal  deposit  is  given  in  figure  234  (Sm.  Rep.,  1897, 
pi.  13).     (The  top  of  the  page  is  east). 

The  flint  varies  greatly  at  different  portions  of  the  deposit. 
For  some  distance  from  the  margin  on  every  side  it  is  whitish 
or  grayish  in  color,  cellular  or  porous  in  structure  from  the 
weathering  out  of  small  fossils,  and  makes  an  excellent  buhr- 
stone,    for   which    purpose    it    was    formerly   in   much    demand. 


620 


Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 


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Figure  234  —  Map  of  Flint  Ridge  in  Licking  County. 


Method  of  Quarrying  Flint.  621 

Within  this  border  it  is  more  compact,  freer  from  impurities, 
and  possesses  all  the  colors  and  shades  ever  seen  in  such  stone. 
Much  of  it  is  a  typical  chalcedony,  blue  or  grayish-blue  and  trans- 
lucent. Large  beds  exist  of  banded  or  ribbon  jasper,  with  alter- 
nating stripes  of  light  and  dark  gray.  In  places  there  is  a  glassy 
variety  ranging  from  almost  perfect  transparency  to  complete 
opacity  except  in  very  thin  flakes,  included  carbonaceous  matter 
producing  every  gradation  from  a  slight  cloudiness  to  jet  black. 
Much  of  this  can  not  be  distinguished  from  moss  agate. 

In  the  central  part  of  the  ridge,  the  chalcedony  has  weathered 
into  various  tints  of  blue,  red,  brown,  yellow,  and  white ;  occas- 
ional pieces  of  green  and  purple  are  found.  All  this  is  susceptible 
of  the  highest  degree  of  polish,  and  the  brilliancy  and  delicacy  of 
the  beautiful  markings  thus  brought  out  are  equalled  only  by 
the  finer  grades  of  agatized  wood  from  Arizona. 

Whether  or  not  prehistoric  man  possessed  a  sufficient  devel- 
opment of  artistic   sense  or  esthetic   feeling  to  appreciate  this 
feature,  may  be  open  to  question ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
his  practical  judgment  led  to  a  recognition  of  the   fine   grain 
and  superior  chipping  qualities  of  the  stone  and  the  consequent 
ease  with  which  it  could  be  converted  into  a  high  grade  of  cutting 
and  piercing  implements,  such  as  were  necessary  to  his  welfare. 
It  would  not  take  him  a  great  while  to  discover  that  pieces  detach- 
ed from  blocks  upon  the  surface  or  from  the  outcrops  of  the 
ledge  along  hill-sides,  were  not  at  all  suitable  for  his  purposes  ; 
they  would  shatter  under  a  blow,  and  would  not  readily  yield 
to  pressure,  or  a  flake  was  liable  to  split  O'ff  in  any  direction  but 
the  right  one.    To  obviate  these  difficuhies  it  was  necessary  that 
the  raw  material  should  be  protected  from  the  weather.     This 
condition  was  met  wherever  there  was  more  than  three  or  four 
feet  of  earth  above  the  flint  stratum.    Mile  after  mile  of  the  ridge 
and  its  projecting  spurs  are  pitted  with  excavations  where  the 
superincumbent  soil  and  clay  were  cleared  away  in  order  to  obtain 
the  character  of  stone  that  was  required.    Sometimes  there  is  only 
a  single  pit  within  the  area  of  a  large  field ;  again  the  entire  surface 
has  been  upturned  without  a  break  over  several  acres.     The  pits 
vary  from  twelve  to  eighty  feet  in  diameter  and  from  three  or 
four  to  at  least  twenty  feet  in  depth ;  continuous  trenches  some- 
times having  a  length  of  fifteen  or  twenty  rods.    It  is  a  safe  esti- 
mate to  say  that  not  less  than  one  hundred  acres  of  flint  has  been 


622  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

removed.  Several  of  these  pits  have  been  cleared  out  to  ascer- 
tain the  manner  of  operation  of  the  ancient  miners.  The  work 
is  quite  similar  in  all;  or  so  much  so,  that  a  description  of  one 
vi^ill  answer  for  the  entire  number. 

The  pit  taken  as  an  illustration  was  at  least  forty  yards  from 
the  one  nearest  to  it ;  it  was  thirty-two  feet  in  diameter  inside  of 
the  wall  of  earth  surrounding  it,  which  wall  is  now  two  feet 
higher  than  the  general  surface  around  it,  and  from  twenty  to 
thirty  feet  across  at  the  base.  This  form  indicates  considerable 
age ;  as  does  an  oak  tree  nearly  ten  feet  in  circumference,  growing 
on  the  top  of  the  wall.  In  clearing  out  this  pit  we  could  appre- 
ciate the  patience  and  industry  of  the  aboriginal  excavators.  The 
clay  subsoil  was  as  hard  and  tough  as  fro'zen  ground ;  frequently 
half  a  dozen  blows  with  a  pick  were  required  to  break  off  a  clod 
as  large  as  a  man's  hand.  To  remove  it  with  primitive  tools 
seems  almost  an  impossibility.  The  central  part  o-f  the  pit  was 
filled  with  material  that  had  washed  in  from  the  sides.  Several 
days  of  steady  digging  were  required,  by  three  men  accustomed 
to  such  work,  to  reach  the  surface  of  the  flint  stratum,  which 
was  found  at  a  depth  of  nine  feet.  A  hole  five  by  eight  and  one- 
half  feet  had  been  worked  through;  clearing  this  out,  we  found 
the  layer  to  be  forty  inches  thick.  It  rested  directly  upon  a  solid 
bluish  limestone.  Both  the  flint  and  the  limestone  showed  that 
they  had  been  subjected  to  an  intense  heat.  The  flint  was  very 
solid  where  not  burnt,  translucent,  and  a  beautiful  light-blue  in 
color.  On  its  top,  on  a  corner  formed  by  two  seams,  was  a  sau- 
cer-shaped depression  between  three  and  four  inches  deep,  in  the 
bottom  of  which  was  a  handful  of  very  fine  chips ;  just  such  as 
would  result  from  repeated  blows  with  a  large  hammer-stone, 
several  of  which  were  found  scattered  through  the  entire  depth 
cleared  out.  One  of  them  weighed  nearly  or  quite  a  hundred 
pounds. 

Careful  observation  of  this  pit — and  others  as  well — enables 
us  to  follow  the  prehistoric  quarryman  in  his  labors.  He  se- 
lected a  spot  where  he  thought  the  superincumbent  earth  was  not 
heavy  enough  to  render  the  task  of  removing  it  too  tedious,  but 
at  the  same  time  was  of  ample  thickness  to  prevent  injury  to 
the  stone  from  weathering.  He  then  sunk  a  pit,  as  large  as  he 
wished,  to  the  surface  of  the  flint.  On  this  he  made  a  fire ;  and 
when  the  stone  was  hot  he  threw  water  on  it,  causing  it  to  shatter. 


Method  of  Quarrying  Flint.  623 

Throwing  aside  the  fragments,  he  repeated  the  process  until 
he  penetrated  the  underlying  limestone  to  a  depth  which  allowed 
him  sufficient  room  to  work  conveniently.  The  top  and  freshly 
made  face  of  the  flint  was  thickly  plastered  with  potter's  clay, 
after  which  fire  and  water  were  again  utilized  for  clearing  away 
the  limestone  until  a  cavity  was  formed  beneath  the  flint  layer. 
Thus  a  projecting  ledge  would  be  left,  from  which  the  burnt 
parts  were  knocked  off  with  heavy  stone  hammers  until  the  un- 
altered flint  was  exposed ;  in  the  same  manner,  blocks  of  this 
were  procured  for  converting  into  implements.  Where  the  flint 
was  well  suited  for  the  purpose  intended,  or  was  easily  worked, 
the  excavation  was  carried  along  in  the  form  of  a  trench,  the 
waste  material  being  thrown  to  the  rear;  under  less  favorable 
conditions  the  spot  was  abandoned. 

When  the  blocks  thus  obtained  were  reduced  with  the  large 
hammers  to  a  suitable  size  for  being  handled  easily,  they  were 
carried  to  a  convenient  spot,  which  may  be  designated  as  a  block- 
ing-out shop,  where  the  first  stages  of  manufacturing  were  car- 
ried on.  These  shops  are  sometimes  quite  limited  in  extent,  but 
occasionally  they  cover  an  area  of  five  to  ten  acres.  Scattered 
thickly  over  the  ground  in  such  places  are  angular  fragments 
of  flint,  such  as  would  result  from  knocking  off  corners  and  pro- 
jections from  large  pieces  taken  out  of  the  pits  and  also  from 
breaking  them  up  into  smaller  pieces.  Many  tough  pebbles  of 
various  sizes,  from  glacial  drift,  used  as  hammer-stones,  also 
occur  at  these  shops,  most  of  them  weighing  between  half  a 
pound  and  five  or  six  pounds.  Probably  nine-tenths  of  the  flint 
carried  from  the  pits  to  these  blocking-out  shops  was  rejected; 
the  trimming  process  revealing  some  flaw  or  defect  that  made  it 
unfit  for  use.  The  remainder  was  carried  to  other  places  which 
may  be  called  finishing-shops.  These  are  characterized  by  lighter 
hammer-stones,  smaller  fragments,  thin  flakes,  and  broken  im- 
plements in  all  stages  of  completion.  Although  never  so  exten- 
sive as  the  first  named,  they  show  a  greater  amount  of  work 
on  an  equal  area.  The  largest  are  in  the  vicinity  of  the  pits  and 
the  other  workshops ;  but  they  may  be  found,  gradually  dimin- 
ishing in  extent,  at  springs,  camping-places,  and  village-sites, 
as  we  travel  in  any  direction,  sometimes  fifty  miles  or  more  from 
the  parent  ledge. 


624  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Evidently  aboriginal  excavations  at  Flint  Ridge  extended 
over  a  long  period;  for  the  material  is  found  in  the  largest 
mounds  explored  in  the  Kanawha,  Scioto,  and  Miami  valleys,, 
as  well  as  on  the  sites  of  modern  villages. 

Well-diggers  and  others  who  have  penetrated  the  flint  agree 
in  the  statement  that  when  covered  by  a  considerable  thickness 
of  earth  the  stone  has  a  smooth,  oily  appearance  not  observed 
in  pieces  on  the  surface;  and  that  it  is  much  tougher,  requiring 
more  labor  to  break  it  up.  Old  residents,  whose  memory  reaches 
to  a  period  anterior  to  the  introduction  of  percussion  caps,  say 
that  it  was  customary  at  an  early  day  to  gather  pieces  of  stone 
of  suitable  size  and  shape  for  use  with  flint-lock  guns  and  soak 
them  in  oil  for  several  weeks  before  they  were  needed.  In 
this  way  a  "flint"  which,  used  in  its  natural  state,  would  shatter 
in  a  day,  could  be  made  to  last  for  weeks. 

QUARRIES    NEAR    WARSAW. 

Quarries  of  siliceous  stone  somewhat  similar  to  those  at 
Flint  Ridge  exist  along  the  Walhonding  River  about  three  miles 
from  Warsaw.  The  flint  as  originally  deposited  formed  a  con- 
tinuous layer  of  varying  width  about  ten  or  twelve  miles  long; 
but  subsequent  erosion  has  left  only  comparatively  small  detached 
areas  on  or  near  the  summits  of  hills  and  ridges.  At  one  place 
a  narrow  ridge  extends  for  some  distance  between  the  river  and 
a  tributary  ravine,  the  flint  forming  the  cap-rock  beneath  a  few 
feet  of  earth.  The  aborigines  began  at  the  outcrop  on  one  side 
and  dug  their  way  through  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  hill,  remov- 
ing all  the  flint  and  overlying  material,  selecting  what  they  could 
utilize  and  throwing  the  residue  behind  them  as  they  proceeded. 
The  space  thus  dug  over  is  fully  five  acres.  Many  circular  pits, 
the  largest  not  less  than  lOO  feet  in  diameter,  are  to  be  seen  on  the 
level  summits ;  and  much  quarrying  has  been  practiced  along  vari- 
ous outcrops,  the  work  progressing  until  the  removal  of  over- 
lying rock  and  earth  required  an  amount  of  labor  too  great  for 
the  reward.  There  is  much  variety  in  the  quality  and  appearance 
of  the  flint  at  this  place.  Part  of  it  is  cellular,  almost  spongy, 
from,  the  weathering  out  of  fossils  and  various  impurities.  By 
insensible  gradations  it  passes  into  stone  as  compact  and  hom- 
ogeneous as  fine  agate.  Seams  of  chalcedony,  and  cavities  filled 
or  lined  with  quartz  crystals,  occur  abundantly.     Chert,  glossy 


Flint  Quarries  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  West  Virginia.     625 

basanite,  and  small  masses  of  chalcedony  are  common.  The  color 
runs  through  various  shades  of  white,  black,  blue,  and  red,  and 
there  is  also  the  pale  amber  or  ''honey  color,"  very  rare  in  this 
country.  Some  is  almost  transparent,  and  from  this  it  merges 
into  complete  opacity.  There  seems  to  be  no  regular  order  in 
its  arrangements ;  sometimes  there  are  thick  strata  of  considerable 
extent  with  but  slight  variation  in  character,  while  again  three 
or  four  sorts  may  be  seen  in  one  large  block.  One  color  may 
gradually  blend  with  another,  or  the  line  of  demarkation  may 
be  sharply  defined  without  the  slightest  change  in  other  respects. 
Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  deposit  is  of  a  character  suitable 
for  making  implements,  consequently  less  digging  has  been  done 
here  than  in  beds  considerably  smaller  elsewhere.  The  difficulty 
of  reaching  deeply  buried  parts  has  also  been  a  deterrent  to  ex- 
tensive working. 

Five  or  six  miles  west  of  this  a  deposit  of  black  flint  is  re- 
ported to  occur  in  a  thick  stratum.  Several  acres,  in  detached 
areas,  have  been  completely  dug  over ;  broken  flint,  spalls,  and 
unfinished  implements  are  said  to  almost  hide  the  ground  in 
places. 

NEW    LEXINGTON. 

Another  worked  area  is  near  the  town  of  New  Lexington,, 
in  Perry  county.  All  the  flint  here  is  opaque ;  the  prevailing 
color  is  dark,  with  more  or  less  admixture  of  white  markings, 
due  principally  to  the  presence  of  fossils  which  in  some  parts 
make  up  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  deposits;  various 
others  tints  also  occur.  Most  of  the  stone  being  porous  and  crys- 
talline, only  small  pieces  could  be  utilized  for  arrow-making,  and 
there  was  much  waste ;  so  that  in  all,  not  more  than  half  an  acre 
has  been  excavated. 

CARTER    COUNTY,    KENTUCKY. 

Quantities  of  chipped  implements  are  also  found  in  Ohio, 
made  of  material  derived  from  at  least  two  different  sources  out- 
side of  the  state.  The  principal  foreign  supply  came  from  an 
extensive  deposit,  or  rather  a  series  of  small  deposits  covering 
a  large  area,  in  the  neighborhod  of  the  "Carter  county  caves," 
in  Kentucky,  about  twenty-five  miles  south  of  Portsmouth,  Ohio. 
The  stone  is  found  in  small  nodules  or  pebbles  where  the  lime^ 
40 


626  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

stone  has  been  dissolved  and  carried  away  by  the  action  of  per- 
colating water.  The  flint  is  not  affected  by  such  agencies  and 
remains  imbedded  in  the  clay  which  is  left  behind.  It  is  re- 
markably diversified  in  color,  presenting  many  shades  of  red, 
brown,  yellow  and  gray,  and  has  a  luster  peculiarly  its  own 
which,  like  that  of  the  Flint  Ridge  stone,  enables  one  familiar 
with  it  to  recognize  it  at  a  glance  wherever  found.  This  quality  en- 
ables us  to  determine  the  fact  that  fully  nine-tenths  of  all  the  flint 
implements  found  along  the  Ohio  from  the  Licking  to  the  Guy- 
andotte  are  made  of  flint  from  Carter  county ;  and  it  may  be  that 
the  same  fact  holds  good  for  the  region  above  the  latter  stream. 

KANAWHA   VALLEY. 

Many  implements  are  found,  particularly  in  the  southern 
counties,  made  of  a  compact  black  chert  or  basanite  which  shows 
a  dull  luster  on  freshly  fractured  surfaces.  The  material  occurs 
within  the  state,  but,  except  that  near  Walhonding,  is  nearly 
always  under  conditions  which  render  the  task  of  procuring  a  sup- 
ply almost  impossible  with  means  at  command  of  the  primitive 
quarryman.  Unlimited  quantities,  however,  are  easily  accessible 
in  the  Kanawha  valley.  Elk  Rapids,  just  below  Charleston,  are 
due  to  a  ledge  of  this  chert  which  gradually  rises  from  the  river 
bed  here,  to  the  hill-tops  a  few  miles  east  of  the  Gauley.  Over 
this  entire  area  it  forms  a  solid  stratum  about  four  feet  thick 
and  the  outcrop  can  be  followed  for  scores  of  miles  in  its  tor- 
tuous windings  along  the  slopes.  In  almost  any  ravine  it  will  be 
found  projecting  like  a  shelf,  sometimes  with  a  width  of  twenty 
or  thirty  feet.  Suitable  pieces  for  working  are  abundant  in  the 
beds  of  little  runs ;  or  an  unlimited  supply  may  be  secured  by 
following  up  these  to  the  outcrop  and  breaking  it  off  from  the 
projecting  ledge. 

WYANDOTTE    CAVE. 

The  Ohio  Indians  also  made  use  of  a  bluish-gray  hornstone 
that  is  not  known  to  occur  nearer  than  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Wy- 
andotte Cave  in  southern  Indiana.  Here,  the  disintegration  of 
the  limestone  has  released  an  incredible  number  of  nodules,  of 
every  size  up  to  eighteen  inches  across.  Most  of  them,  especially 
the  larger  ones,  are  flattened  or  elongated,  so  that  no  great  amount 
of  chipping  is  required  to  reduce  them  to  desired  forms.     This 


Quarries  in  Various  States.    Traffic  in  Flint.  627 

flint  is  more  readily  wrought  than  any  other  to  be  found  in 
the  central  valleys,  and  the  vast  amount  of  excavating  that  has 
been  carried  on  shows  that  the  Red  Man  was  fully  cognizant  of 
its  excellent  quality. 

The  statement  has  been  made,  and  extensively  copied,  that 
the  Indians  resorted  to  Wyandotte  Cave  for  flint,  shaping  it 
into  small  rectangular  blocks,  which  they  carried  to  the  outer 
air  to  work  up  at  their  pleasure.  It  is  true  that  much  of  the  horn- 
stone  was  obtained  within  the  cave  at  a  distance  of  more  than 
a  mile  from  its  mouth ;  but  the  work  was  pursued  in  the  same 
manner  as  on  the  outside — that  is,  they  dug  in  the  clay  for  nodules 
which  they  tested  by  striking  off  chips,  rejecting  such  as  did  not 
suit  them.  The  angular  fragments  mistaken  for  the  result  of 
Indian  work,  are  pieces  that  have  been  released  from  a  continu- 
ous layer  in  the  roof  of  the  cave  by  natural  weathering,  and  are 
too  brittle  to  be  utilized  for  implements.  The  stratum  from  which 
they  are  derived  is  about  three  inches  thick,  and  the  fracture  of 
the  stone  being  at  a  right  angle  to  the  line  of  stratification,  pro- 
duces prisms  of  that  length  which,  so  far  from  being  uniform 
in  their  other  dimensions,  as  usually  stated,  vary  from  the  size 
of  a  lead  pencil  to  pieces  four  or  five  inches  square. 


Other  deposits  of  flint  eminently  suitable  for  aboriginal 
needs,  have  been  extensively  worked  in  Pennsylvania,  Virginia, 
West  Virginia,  western  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Ar- 
kansas, Indian  Territory,  Missouri  and  Illinois ;  so  that  it  need  be 
no  mystery  as  to  where  the  Indians  obtained  their  supplies. 

Traffic  in  flint  w^as  an  important  aboriginal  industry ;  al- 
though its  abundance  and  wide  distribution  make  the  fact  less 
noticeable  than  is  the  case  with  materials  more  restricted  in 
amount  and  area.  The  Flint  Ridge  stone  seems  to  have  been 
in  great  demand.  Implements  made  of  it  are  found  as  remote 
from  the  source  of  supply  as  New  York,  Michigan,  Illinois  and 
Tennessee.  The  products  of  other  quarries  -also  had  a  wide 
range.  The  same  conditions  prevailed  until  quite  recently  in 
various  parts  of  the  earth. 

According  to  Col.  Stephen  S.  Long  "  flakes  prepared  for  points 
and  other  implements  seemed  to  be  an  object  of  trade  or  commerce 
among    the    Indian    tribes    that    he    came    in    contact    with ;    that    there 


628 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


were  but  few  places  where  chert  or  quartzite  were  found  of  sufficient 
hardness  and  close  and  even  grain  to  flake  well,  and  at  those  places  there 
were  men  very  expert  at  flaking."  —  Sellers  :    Chipping. 

"  An  Indian  usually  has  his  pouch  of  treasures  consisting  of  un- 
finished arrow-heads  or  unworked  stones,  to  be  slowly  wrought  out  when 
industriously  inclined."  "  The  materials  from  which  [arrow-heads]  are 
made  are  often  brought  from  long  distances."  —  Cheever,  140. 

"At  places  distant  from  the  source  of  supply,  the  obsidian,  which  is 
often  brought  in  large  blocks,  is  chipped  off  in  flakes  from  around  a 
central  core  by  blows  of  a  rock,"  —  Mason,  Bows,  658;  from  Dulog,  in 
Forest  and  Stream. 

"  Erratic  boulders  of  flint  are  collected  (and  sometimes  brought 
an  immense  distance)  "  to  make  up  into  arrow-heads. —  Catlin,  Ram- 
bles, 188. 

"  The  Assinaboine  Indians  use  in  pipe  manufacture  a  fine  marble^ 
also  a  coarse  species  of  jasper.     These  are  cut  into  various  simple,  but 


Figure  235. 
Disks,  covered  by  a  mound,  at  Hopewell's. 


tasteful  designs,  executed  chiefly  by  the  slow  and  laborious  process  of 
rubbing  them  down  with  other  stones.  A  suitable  stone  for  such  a  pur- 
pose will  be  picked  up  and  carried  hundreds  of  miles.  Mr.  Kane  ob- 
served his  Assinaboine  guides  select  the  favorite  bluish  jasper  from  among 
the  water-worn  stones  in  the  bed  of  the  river  to  carry  home  for  the 
purpose  of  pipe  manufacture,  although  they  were  then  five  hundred  miles 
from  their  lodges."  —  Dr.  D.  Wilsonj  quoted  in  Can.  Savage,  25,  con- 
densed. 

The  various  Indian  tribes  of  Guiana  have  each  their  special  man- 
ufacture and  exchange  with  other  tribes. —  Im  Thurn,  XI,  447. 

Till  lately  the  Patagonians,  when  they  came  on  their  journeys  to 
a  place  where  suitable  flint  or  obsidian  was  to  be  found,  would  load  them- 
selves with  a  supply  of  lumps  to  chip  into  these  primitive  currier's 
scrapers. —  Tylor,  245. 

The  most  remarkable  instance  of  transportation  of  material 
that  has  yet  come  to  Hght,  is  furnished  by  a  deposit  of  flint  disks 
uncovered  in  mound  number  2  of  the  Hopewell  group.  A  section 
is  shown  in  figure  235  (S.  &  D.,  158,  figure  46).  It  is  not  exactly 
correct. 


Caches  of  Worked  Flints.  629 

This  mound  was  "at  least  eighty  feet  in  diameter  by  but  six  or 
seven  feet  in  height.  It  had  two  sand  strata;  but  instead  of  an  aUar, 
there  are  two  layers  of  disks  chipped  out  of  hornstone,  (AA  of  this  sec- 
tion) some  nearly  round,  others  in  the  form  of  spear-heads.  *  *  * 
They  were  placed  side  by  side,  a  little  inclining,  and  one  layer  resting 
immediately  on  the  other.  Out  of  an  excavation  six  feet  long  and  four 
wide,  not  far  from  six  hundred  were  thrown."  —  S.  &  D.,  158. 

The  authors  estimate  that  there  must  have  been  at  least 
four  thousand  of  these  disks.  Moorehead,  who  afterwards 
thoroughly  cleared  out  the  deposit,  found  this  to  be  less  than 
one-half  the  actual  number.  He  reports  that  the  entire  number 
taken  from  the  mound,  including  all  from  the  time  of  Squier  and 
Davis  to  his  own  explorations,  amounts  to 

"Eight  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty  five  disks  whose  average 
weight  is  nearly  one  pound.  *  *  *  We  found  the  disks  lying  in  little 
pockets  or  bunches  of  12  or  15  each  with  layers  of  sand  around  each  mass. 
The  deposits  covered  an  area  of  22  by  26  feet." 

He  also  states  that  Squier  and  Davis,  (probably  owing  to  the 
limited  size  O'f  their  excavation)  were  somewhat  in  error  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  disks  were  stored  away. 

Some  of  the  Mound  Builders  "had  apparently  carried  in  their 
hands  and  arms  all  the  disks  they  could  transport  readily  and  deposited 
them  upon  the  same  level,  while  others  *  *  *  poured  sand  over  and 
between  each  man's  deposit.  *  *  *  a  second  series  of  deposits  was 
made  [over]  the  first." 

Squier  and  Davis  believed  the  material  came  from  Flint 
Ridge;  and  this  opinion  has  generally  been  accepted  by  other 
authors  who  had  no  personal  knowledge  of  its  utter  lack  of 
resemblance  to  stone  from  that  locality.     Aloorehead  says  :— 

"They  were  made  of  flint  nodules  which  occur  two  miles  west  of 
Mr.   Hopewell's   farm."  —  Moorehead,   190. 

What  this  assertion  is  based  upon,  no  one  knows ;  not  only  is 
there  no  flint,  in  nodules  or  in  any  form,  at  or  near  the  place  he 
mentions,  but  there  is  none  in  Ross  county  except  a  piece  of 
chert  here  and  there  in  the  glacial  drift.  Neither  is  the  bluish 
hornstone  from  which  the  Hopewell  disks  are  chipped  native  to 
any  part  of  Ohio.  It  is  the  same  variety  that  is  found  at  Wyan- 
dotte Cave,  about  forty  miles  west  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and 
none  is  known  nearer  than  that  point. 


630  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Three  of  the  disks,  greatly  reduced  in  size,  are  shown  in 
figure  236. 

Referring  to  the  theory  that  caches  of  chipped  flints  in  gen- 
eral, and  the  Hopewell  cache  in  particular,  were  stores  or  maga- 
zines of  material  intended  to  be  worked  up  in  arrow  heads  or 
other  implements,  Stevens  asserts  that 

"  The  labor  which  has  been  expended  upon  the  flint  disks  has 
absolutely  unfitted  them  for  the  purpose  suggested.  Had  it  been  intended 
to  store  material  we  should  have  found  squared  or  rough  blocks.  These 
would  have  presented  corners  from  which  flakes,  adapted  for  making  into 
spear-heads,  could  have  been  readily  detached,  whereas  it  would  be  almost 
impossible  to  detach  a  long  flake  from  these  American  disks.  *  *  h^ 
Had  '  ease  of  transport  or  saving  of  space '  been  the  objects  of  the  people 
who    fashioned   these    disks,    it   is   nearly   impossible    for   them   to    have. 


Figure  236  —  Disks,    from  Hopewells.     Probably  Indiana   Flint. 

selected  a  form  less  adapted  to  the  ends  to  be  answered  than  that  of  an 
oval,  thick  in  the  middle  and  thin  at  the  edges."  —  Stevens,  443. 

All  this  might  be  true  if  the  artisans  had  been  able  to  exercise 
any  choice  in  the  matter.  But  the  nodules  from  which  they  were 
made  had  an  ellipsoid  form,  and  the  present  shape  of  the  imple- 
ment results  from  breaking  away  the  useless  weathered  surface 
to  lessen  the  weight.  Besides,  spalls  o-f  ample  size  for  making 
knives  and  arrows  can  be  struck  off  from  these  disks.  If  it  were 
the  intention  thus  to  utilize  them,  many  such  spalls  could  be 
obtained  from  one  in  the  process  of  converting  it  into  a  thin,  sym- 
metrical, finely  finished  implement  several  inches  in  length. 

The  original  discovers  were  undecided  what  explanation  tO' 
offer.    After  describing  the  find,  they  add, 

"  If  they  were  thus  placed  as  an  offering  we  can  form  some  estimate,. 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  must  have  been  brought  from  a  great  dis- 
tance, and  fashioned  with  great  toil,  of  the  devotional  fervor  which  in- 
duced the  sacrifice,  or  the  magnitude  of  the  calamity  which  the  sacrifice- 


Caches  of  Worked  Flints.  631 

was  perhaps  intended  to  avert."  To  the  suggestion  that  these  disks  were 
simply  buried  to  be  used  when  needed,  in  making  implements,  they  reply, 
"  It  is  incredible,  however,  that  so  much  care  should  be  taken  to  fashion 
the  mound  and  introduce  the  mysterious  sand  strata,  if  it  was  designed 
to  be  disturbed-  at  any  subsequent  period.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the 
deposit  was  final,  and  was  made  in  compliance  with  some  religious 
requirement."  —  S.  &  D.,  158. 

Later,  this  opinion  is  abandoned  for  another : — 

"  We  are  wholly  at  a  loss  respecting  their  purposes,  unless  they  were 
designed  to  be  worked  into  more  elaborate  implements  *  *  *  and 
were  thus  roughly  blocked  out  for  greater  ease  of  transportation  from  the 
quarries."  —  S.  &  D.,  214. 

Snyder  takes  exception  to  the  last  theory  and  ofifers  a  very 
strong-  argument  in  support  of  his  position. 

"  At  the  bottom  of  a  mound  thirty  feet  high,  in  Brown  County, 
Illinois,  was  a  deposit  of  more  than  6,000  of  these  disks  similar  in  form 
and  size  to  those  of  Hopewell's,  but  made  of  black  hornstone.  They 
were  on  a  mass  of  hard-burned  clay  covering  an  area  of  about  twenty  by 
thirty  feet,  and  above  them  was  a  stratum  of  the  same  character.  A 
cache  of  more  than  1,500  specimens  was  unearthed  in  Cass  County,  and 
another  of  3,500  in  Schuyler  County  in  the  same  State  —  each  lot  about 
five  feet  below  the  surface,  but  without  any  mound  over  them.  These 
three  localities  are  near  together.  While  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many 
caches  of  unfinished  implements  were  thus  made,  partly  for  safety,  and 
partly  to  preserve  the  flint  in  workable  condition,  it  is  always  the  case 
that  such  deposits  are  of  smaller  objects  than  those  above  referred  to. 
There  would  be  no  reason  for  the  construction  of  a  mound  of  such 
size  over  them ;  and  moreover,  not  one  of  these  deposits  shows  the 
slightest  evidence  that  it  was  ever  disturbed  after  being  made.  Had 
they  been  intended  as  stores  for  material,  we  should  expect  to  discover 
in  the  vicinity  quantities  of  chips,  spalls,  and  broken  or  unfinished  im- 
plements ;  these  we  do  not  find.  My  own  limited  observations  in  the  field, 
and  all  the  mound-exploring  literature  to  which  I  have  access,  establish  — 
in  my  opinion  —  the  fact,  without  exception,  that  no  primal  deposit  of 
any  kind  placed  at  the  base  of  a  mound  has  ever  been  subsequently  dis- 
turbed by  the  people  who  made  it.  It  is  my  belief  that  all  these  immense 
deposits  of  large  disks  are  votive  offerings.  They  show  no  marks  of  use; 
they  are  carefully  buried,  often  apparently  v/ith  some  kind  of  ceremonious 
observances ;  and  their  position  frequently  indicates  that  it  was  not  in- 
tended they  should  ever  be  disturbed."  —  Snyder,  Disks,  condensed. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  traces  of  burial  of  a  human 
body  were  noticed  in  either  mound ;  so  we  are  not  to  suppose 
the  disks  were  personal  property,  and  buried  at  the  owner's  death. 


632  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  opportunity  afforded  by  the  coincidence  of  these 
immense  deposits  has  not  been  overlooked  by  writers  seeking 
to  estabhsh  identity  in  time,  rehgion,  nationality,  etc. 

"  These  disks  seem  to  connect  the  Mound  Builders  of  the  Illinois 
River  with  those  of  the  Scioto  and  convey  the  idea  that  the  pyramids 
and  sacred  enclosures  were  built  at  the  same  time."  —  Peet,  I,  57. 


However  the  question  may  be  settled  in  regard  to  the  large 
disks,  there  can  scarcely  be  any  difference  of  opinion  concerning 
the  caches  of  leaf-shaped  (pointed-oval)  flint  implements,  some- 
times to  the  number  of  several  hundred  in  one  spot,  so  frequently 
referred  to  in  newspapers  and  other  publications.  Almost  invar- 
iably the  account  states  they  were  found  in  "low"  or 
^'marshy"  or  "swampy"  places.  This  is  good  evidence  that  they 
were  personal  possessio-ns,  thus  hidden  for  security,  partly,  but 
mainly  that  they  should  retain  their  moisture  and  consequently 
their  workable  qualities  until  such  time  as  it  was  desirable  to  finish 
them  for  use  or  for  sale.  An  interesting  discovery  of  this  nature 
was  made  by  a  farmer  in  Ashland  county.  While  plowing  a 
drained  swamp  he  struck  a  deposit  of  leaf-shaped  blades,  made 
of  Flint  Ridge  material. 

"  There  were  201  of  them,  besides  a  number  of  unworked  frag- 
ments." They  were  enclosed  in  "a  keg-like  vessel  of  red-elm  bark, 
about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  some  ten  or  twelve  in  diameter, 
and  about  thirteen  in  height.  The  vessel  was  a  section  of  the  bark, 
which  had  been  removed  from  the  tree  by  cutting  or  notching  around  the 
body  and  then  peeling  it  off.  *  *  *  About  twenty-five  rods  south- 
west of  the  slough  are  the  remains  of  an  Indian  village."  —  Hill,  364. 

THE   MANUFACTURE  OF   FLINT   INSTRUMENTS. 

The  method  of  converting  flint  into  implements  will  be  next 
considered.  As  various  names  or  descriptive  words  are  often 
used  indiscriminately  to  denote  the  same  thing,  and  on  the  other 
hand  a  single  word  is  sometimes  applied  to  objects  quite  different 
from  each  other,  it  will  perhaps  be  well  to  explain  some  of  the 
terms  used  herein,  to  prevent  confusion. 

A  block  of  flint  is  a  rough,  irregular  mass  as  it  is  broken  off 
from  the  ledge,  or  from  a  larger  mass,  with  a  heavy  hammer.  In 
order  to  bring  it  to  a  convenient  form  for  handling,  fragments 


Definition  of  Terms  in  Flint  Manufacture. 


633 


are  knocked  off  with  a  smaller  hammer-stone;  these  are  left 
where  they  fall.  Spalls  are  flat,  thin  pieces  struck  off  from  a  block. 
Flakes  differ  from  spalls  in  being  long,  thin,  and  narrow,  sharp 
on  both  edges  and  more  or  less  pointed.  Chips  are  very  thin, 
rounded  scales,  formed  by  pressure  of  a  bone  or  similar  tool,  in 
the  last  steps  of  completing  an  implement.  Splinters  are  long, 
slender  points  or  spicules,  made  by  a  sudden  blow ;  they  are  some- 
what irregular  in  cross-section  though  usually  rudely  triangular, 
and  more  or  less  pointed  at  the  end  which  was  struck.  Cores  are 
blocks  worked  into  convenient  shape  for  furnishing  spalls  or 
flakes.  Rejects  are  unfinished  implements,  thrown  aside  when 
some  flaw  is  revealed  that  prevents  their  completion.  Blanks  are 
leaf-shaped  or  triangular  specimens  lacking  only  in  some  minor 
features,  as  notches  or  barbs,  to-  make  them  perfect  implements ; 
these  features  probably  being  left  for  the  user  to  shape  according 
to  his  pleasure. 

The  accompanying  diagram,  figure  237,  will  render  plain  the 
different  terms  used  in  connection  with  the  completed  specimens : 

.0 


a  . .. 

.Point. 

b  ... 

.Edge. 

c  ... 

.  Face. 

d  ... 

-Bevel. 

e  ... 

-Blade. 

/    •- 

Tang. 

9  --- 

Stem. 

h  ... 

.Base. 

i  ... 

.Notch. 

k  ... 

.Neck. 

m 

Barb,  or  shoul 

.der. 

Figure  237  —  Diagram  illustrating  terms. 


The  only  difference  between  barb  and  shoulder  is  that  the 
barb  is  prolonged  toward  the  base.  The  shoulder  is  called  squared 
or  rounded  according  to  whether  the  edge  of  the  implement  makes 
an  angle  or  a  curve  where  draw^n  in  to-  form  the  stem. 

In  stemless  specimens  the  base  is  the  end  opposite  the  point. 


634  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


FLAKING. 

Various  methods  were  adopted  for  procuring  spalls  and 
flakes. 

Evans  says  that  blows  with  a  pebble  will  form  just  such  flakes  as 
those  produced  by  an  iron  hammer ;  the  blows  must,  however,  be  deliv- 
ered in  exactly  the  right  spot  and  with  the  proper  force.  Cores  some- 
times show  markings  of  hammers  when  struck  too  near  the  edge.  Flakes 
can  be  produced  by  using  a  pebble  as  a  set  or  punch  and  striking  it 
with  a  stone.  The  use  of  a  set  was  probably  the  exception  rather  than 
the  rule,  for  great  precision  may  be  obtained  simply  with  a  hammer  held 
in  the  hand.  The  Eskimo  use  a  hammer  set  in  a  handle  to  strike  off  flakes, 
or  strike  them  off  by  slight  taps  with  a  hammer  of  jade,  oval  in  shape, 
about  2  by  3  inches,  and  secured  to  a  bone  handle  with  sinew  (Evans, 
20,  23,  and  25).  The  Peruvian  Indians  work  obsidian  by  laying  a  bone 
wedge  on  the  surface  of  a  piece  and  tapping  it  until  the  stone  cracks 
(Anahuac,  99).  Schumacher  observed  that  the  Klamath  Indians  heat  a 
stone  and  break  it  into  fragments  at  a  single  blow  (Hayden,  1877,  p.  574). 
The  Shasta  Indian  lays  a  stone  anvil  on  his  knee,  and  holding  on  the 
anvil  the  stone  which  he  is  working,  strikes  off  a  flake  one-fourth  of  an 
inch  thick  with  a  stone  hammer  (Stevens,  77)  ;  he  also  places  an  ob- 
sidian pebble  on  an  anvil  of  stone  and  splits  it  with  an  agate  chisel  to  the 
required  size  (Bancroft,  H.  H.,  I,  342).  The  Shoshoni  or  Snake  Indians 
of  the  northwest  work  in  the  same  way  (Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  212), 
and  certain  California  Indians  strike  off  flakes  from  a  mass  of  agate,  jas- 
per, or  chalcedony  with  a  stone  hammer  (Stevens,  78,  from  Powers), 
while  the  Apache  break  a  bowlder  of  hornstone  with  a  heavy  stone  ham- 
mer having  a  twisted  withe  for  a  handle  (Catlin,  Rambles,  187). 

Schoolcraft  says  experience  has  taught  the  Indians  that  some  varie- 
ties of  hornstone  (flint)  are  less  easily  fractured  than  others,  and  that 
the  conchoidal  form  is  found  best  in  softer  varieties ;  also  that  the  weath- 
ered fragments  are  managed  with  greater  difficulty  than  are  those 
freshly  quarried  (Schoolcraft,  History,  III,  467). 

Evans  points  out  that  in  making  gunflints  much  depends  upon  the 
condition  of  the  stone  as  regards  the  moisture  it  contains,  those  that 
have  been  too  long  exposed  on  the  surface  becoming  intractable,  and  there 
is  also  a  great  difficulty  in  working  those  that  are  too  moist.  Some  of 
the  workers,  however,  say  that  a  flint  which  has  been  some  time  ex- 
posed to  the  air  is  harder  than  one  recently  dug,  yet  it  works  equally 
well  (Evans,  17). 

Torquemada  seems  to  have  recorded  two  methods  in  vogue 
among  the  ancient  Mexicans  for  obtaining  the  large  flakes  of 
which  they  made  knives.  One  statement  he  makes  is  to  the 
effect  that 


How  Spalls  and  Flakes  are  Made.  OSS' 

"  They  have  a  stick  as  large  as  the  shaft  of  a  lance,  and  three 
cubits  or  rather  more  in  length,  and  at  the  end  of  it  they  fasten  firmly 
another  piece  of  wood,  eight  inches  long,  to  give  more  weight  to  the  part; 
then  pressing  their  naked  feet  together,  they  hold  the  stone  as  with  a  pair 
of  pincers,  or  the  vice  of  a  carpenter's  bench.  They  take  the  stick  (which 
is  cut  off  smooth  at  the  end)  with  both  hands,  and  set  it  well  home  against 
the  edge  of  the  front  of  the  stone,  which  is  also  cut  smooth  in  that  part ; 
and  they  press  it  against  their  breast,  and  with  the  force  of  the  pressure 
there  flies  off  a  knife,  with  its  point  and  edge  on  one  side,  *  *  *  and 
in  a  very  short  time  these  workmen  will  make  more  than  twenty  knives 
in  the  aforesaid  manner."  —  Lubbock,  99. 

According  to  Biart  he  describes  a  process  just  the  opposite 
of  the  last. 

"  Torquemada,  who  saw  them  [Aztecs]  at  work,  says  *  *  *  They 
took  a  block  of  obsidian  as  large  as  a  leg,  then  a  stick  the  size  of  a  lance- 
shaft,  to  which  they  attached  a  small  piece  of  the  stone.  Then  seating 
themselves  on  the  ground,  the  block  of  obsidian  held  between  the  feet 
as  in  a  vice,  they  grasped  the  stick  by  its  ends,  placed  it  in  contact  with 
the  top  of  the  stone,  and  drew  it  toward  them  with  all  their  strength. 
A  pointed  chip,  sharpened  on  its  two  edges,  suddenly  detached  itself. 
A  workman  thus  made  scores  of  knives  in  an  instant.  *  *  *  jj^  addi- 
tion [they]  worked  granite,  marble,  and  rock  crystal."  —  Biart,  280. 

Frequently  the  spalls  are  of  such  form  that  very  little  addi- 
tional labor  converts  them  into  serviceable  scrapers,  knives,  spears, 
or  arrows.  Sometimes  the  edges  are  bluntly  chipped  (always  from 
the  concave  side)  for  use  as  scrapers.  Others  are  trimmed  only 
enough  to  give  a  general  leaf-shape,  the  faces  being  left  unchang- 
ed; but  they  are  well  suited  for  knives  or  arrow-heads,  though 
most  of  them  are  small.  Either  form  may  or  may  not  have 
notches  for  the  attachment  of  a  handle  or  shaft. 

Nilsson  describes  how  he  made  his  own  gun-flints  when  a  boy. 
With  a  pebble  he  broke  a  flint  to  pieces ;  selecting  a  suitable  flake,  he 
held  it  on  a  large  stone  and  pecked  it  into  shape  with  his  improvised  ham- 
mer. "  But  it  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that,  during  the  operation,  the 
point  of  the  splinter  on  which  I  was  operating  should  rest  upon  the  sup- 
port, as  otherwise  the  splinter  would  immediately  break."  That  is,  the 
impact  of  the  pebble  must  be  directly  over  the  point  upon  which  the 
flake  rested.  He  infers  that  flint  hatchets  and  other  implements  having 
a  section  rectangular  —  or  at  least  quadrilateral  —  were  shaped  in  the 
same  manner. —  Nilsson,  7. 

"  Easy  as  it  may  seem  to  make  such  flakes  *  *  *  ^  certain  knack 
is  required.  *  *  *  a  gun-flint  maker  *  *  *  took  two  years  to  ac- 
quire the  art."  —  Lubbock,  87. 


636  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 


ARROW    MAKING. 

Arrow-making,  whether  from  spalls  or  flakes,  or  by  gradual 
reduction  of  blocks,  has  been  witnessed  by  many  persons  who 
have  reported  the  facts  as  they  observed  them.  Additional  ways 
of  forming  flakes  appear  in  a  few  of  them. 

Among  the  Eskimo  "  all  the  large  surface  flaking  is  produced  either 
by  blows  direct  from  the  hammer,  or  through  an  intermediate  set  or 
punch  formed  of  reindeer  horn.  The  arrow-  or  harpoon  head  thus  roughly 
chipped  out  is  afterwards  finished  by  m.eans  of  the  arrow-flaker."  This 
"  usually  consists  of  a  handle  formed  of  fossil  ivory,  curved  at  one  end 
for  the  purpose  of  being  firmly  held,  and  having  at  the  other  end  a 
[longitudinal]  slit  *  *  *  j^  which  was  placed  a  "slip  of  the  point  of 
the  horn  of  a  reindeer,  which  is  found  to  be  harder  and  more  stubborn 
than  ivory.  This  is  secured  in  its  place  by  a  strong  thong  of  leather  or 
plaited  sinew,  put  on  wet,  which  on  drying  becomes  very  rigid.  *  *  * 
The  bench  on  which  the  arrow-heads  are  made  is  said  to  consist  of  a 
log  of  wood.  In  which  a  spoon-shaped  cavity  is  cut;  over  this  the  flake 
of  chert  is  placed,  and  then,  by  pressing  the  '  arrow-flaker  '  gently  along 
the  margin  vertically,  first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  as  one 
would  set  a  saw,  alternate  fragments  are  splintered  off  until  the  object 
thus  properly  outlined  presents  the  spear  or  arrow-head  form,  with  two 
cutting  serrated  edges."  —  Evans,  37-9;  also  Lubbock,  91.  From  Sir  E. 
Belcher. 

Near  Point  Barrow,  Alaska,  a  flint  pebble  is  "splintered  by  per- 
cussion into  fragments  of  suitable  sizes,  and  these  sharpened  spalls  are 
flaked  into  shape  by  means  of  a  little  instrument  consisting  of  a  short, 
straight   rod   of   some   hard   material   mounted   in   a   short   curved    shaft. 

*  *  *  The  flint  to  be  flaked  is  held  in  the  left  hand  and  pressed 
firmly  against  the  fleshy  part  of  the  palm  which  serves  as  a  cushion  and 
is  protected  by  wearing  a  thick  deer-skin  mitten.  The  tool  is  firmly 
grasped  well  forward  in  the  right  hand  with  the  thumb  on  top  of  the 
blade  and  by  pressing  the  point  steadily  on  the  edge  of  the  flint, 
flakes  of  the  desired  size  are  made  to  fly  off  from  the  under  surface. 

*  *  *  Hard  bone  appears  to  be  the  commonest  material  for  the  blade." 
The  chipping  Instrument  Is  of  compact  bone  or  ivory,  and  is  set  into  the 
end  of  a  bone  or  wood  handle. —  Murdoch,  288. 

At  Clear  Lake,  California,  "  The  old  expert  put  on  his  left  hand 
a  piece  of  buckskin,  with  a  hole  cut  In  It  to  let  the  thumb  pass  through. 

*  *  *  In  his  right  hand  he  took  a  tool  of  bone  ground  down  to  a 
blunt  point.  These  tools,  made  often  from  the  leg  bone  of  a  deer,  are 
assorted  in  sizes,  large  ones  being  used  for  coarse  work  and  small  ones 
for  fine  work.  A  piece  of  obsidian  was  held  In  the  left  hand,  then  the 
right  thumb  was  pressed  on  the  top  of  the  stone,  while  the  point  of  the 
bone  was  strongly  pressed  against  the  under  edge  of  the  proposed 
arrow-head,  and  a  little  splinter  of  obsidian  worked  off.     *     *     *     Around 


Hozu  Arrozv  Heads  are  Made,  637 

deserted  camps  piles  of  rejected  fragments  are  sometimes  found,  either 
broken  in  putting  on  the  edge  or  not  being  near  enough  the  desired 
shape  to  pay  for  working  up."  "  Much  of  the  artisan's  work  consisted 
in  putting  sharp  edges  and  points  on  damaged  implements."  —  Mason, 
Bows,  658;  from  Dulog,  in  Forest  and  Stream. 

The  Viards  of  California  make  arrow-heads  "  in  the  following 
manner:  Taking  a  piece  of  jasper,  chert,  obsidian,  or  common  flint,  which 
breaks  sharp-cornered  and  with  a  conchoidal  fracture,  they  heat  it  in 
the  fire  and  then  cool  it  slowly,  which  splits  it  in  flakes.  The  arrow- 
maker  then  takes  a  flake  and  gives  it  an  approximate  rough  shape  by 
striking  it  with  a  kind  of  hammer.  He  then  slips  over  his  left  hand  a 
piece  of  buckskin,  with  a  hole  to  fit  the  thumb  (this  buckskin  is  to 
prevent  the  hand  from  being  wounded),  and  in  his  right  hand  he 
takes  a  pair  of  buck-horn  pincers,  tied  together  at  the  point  with  a  thong. 
Holding  the  piece  of  flint  in  his  left  hand  he  breaks  off  from  the  edge 
of  it  a  tiny  fragment  with  the  pincers  by  a  twisting  or  wrenching 
motion.  The  piece  is  often  reversed  in  the  hand,  so  that  it  may  be 
worked  away  symmetrically.  Arrow-head  manufacture  is  a  specialty,  just 
as  arrow-making,  medicine  and  other  arts."  —  Powers,  104. 

A  Pitt  River,  California,  Indian  made  from  a  fragment  of  quartz, 
with  a  simple  piece  of  round  bone,  one  end  of  which  was  semi- 
spherical,  with  a  small  crease  in  it  (as  if  worn  by  a  thread)  the 
sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  depth,  an  arrowhead,  which  was  very  sharp 
and  piercing.  *  *  *  The  skill  and  rapidity  with  which  it  was  made, 
without  a  blow,  but  by  simply  breaking  the  sharp  edges  with  the  creased 
bone  by  the  strength  of  his  hands  —  for  the  crease  merely  served  to  prevent 
the  instrument  from  slipping,  affording  no  leverage  —  was  remarkable." 
—  Beckwhh,  43. 

"  The  head  of  the  arrow  is  formed  by  breaking  pieces  of  obsidian  in 
small  parts,  and  selecting  those  nearest  the  desired  form.  In  this  selec- 
tion, those  of  the  right  thickness  are  taken.  In  finishing  them,  every 
edge  of  such  a  piece  is  laid  upon  a  hard  stone,  and  the  other  struck 
with  another  hard  stone,  varying  the  direction  and  force  of  the  blow, 
to  produce  the  desired  result.  It  is  an  operation  which  requires  skill, 
and  many  are  broken  when  nearly  finished,  and  thrown  away.  When 
formed,  it  is  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  long  and  half  an  inch  wide 
and  quite  thin."  —  Wyeth. 

"  Among  the  Klamath  River  Indians,"  of  California,  "  a  piece  of  bone 
is  fastened  to  a  wooden  shaft  one  and  a  half  feet  in  length,  the  working 
point  of  which  is  crooked  and  raised  to  an  edge.  *  *  *  ^o  guide  the 
instrument  with  a  steady  hand,  the  handle  is  held  between  the  arm  and 
the  breast,  while  the  point,  with  but  little  play-room,  assisted  by  the 
thumb,  works  on  the  edge  of  the  flake,  which  again  is  held  for  greater 
safety  in  a  piece  of  deerskin.  After  the  two  sides  have  been  worked  down 
to  a  point,  then  another  instrument  is  required,  with  which  the  barbs  and 
projections  are  broken  out.  This  is  a  needle  or  awl  of  about  three  inches 
length,  and  by  a  pushing  motion  the  desired  pieces  are  broken  out  similar 
as  with  the  first  mentioned  tool."  —  Schumaker;  in  Powers,  104. 


'638  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  In  Central  California,  and  among  the  Klamaths  *  *  *  ^j^g  j-ock 
of  flint  or  obsidian,  esteemed  by  the  natives  for  arrow-pointing,  is  broken 
into  flat  pieces.  *  *  *  When  the  pieces  have  reached  a  proper  size 
for  arrow  heads  the  mode  of  finishing  it  is  in  in  this  wise :  The  palm 
of  the  left  hand  is  covered  with  a  buckskin  held  in  its  place  by  the  thumb 
being  thrust  through  a  hole  in  it.  The  inchoate  arrow-head  is  laid  on 
this  pad  along  the  thick  of  the  thumb,  the  points  of  the  fingers  pressing 
it  down  firmly.  The  instrument  used  to  shape  the  stone  is  a  deer's  ant- 
ler, from  four  to  six  inches  in  length,  held  in  the  right  hand.  The  small 
round  point  of  this  is  judiciously  pressed  upon  the  edge  of  the  stone,  cleav- 
ing it  away  underward  in  small  scales.  The  arrow-head  is  frequently 
turned  around  and  over  to  cleave  away  as  much  from  one  side  as  the  other, 
and  to  give  it  the  desired  size  and  shape.  *  *  *  Old  men  are  usually 
seen  at  this  employment."  —  E.  G.  Waite;  in  Powers,  374. 

The  arrow-maker  on  the  plains  "  holds  between  his  knees  a  block 
of  stone,  from  which,  by  light  sharp  blows  of  a  small  stone  hammer,  he  is 
chipping  off  triangular  flakes  of  flint  for  making  arrow-heads.  The  mate- 
rial used  *  *  *  is  a  black  obsidian  obtained  by  trade  from  the  Crows 
to  the  south,  [or]  a  piece  of  milky  chalcedony  picked  up  in  the  moun- 
tains to  the  west.  Each  of  these  blocks  has  been  sweated  by  being  buried 
in  wet  earth,  over  which  a  fire  has  been  built,  the  object  of  this  treat- 
ment being  to  bring  to  light  all  cracks  and  checks  in  the  stone,  so  that 
no  unnecessary  labor  need  be  performed  on  a  piece  too  badly  cracked  to 
"be  profitably  worked.  As  the  workmen  knock  off  the  chips,  they  turn 
the  blocks,  so  that  after  a  little  they  become  roughly  cylindrical,  always 
growing  smaller  and  smaller,  until  at  length  each  is  too  small  to  furnish 
more  flakes.  [He]  now  collects  all  the  flakes  he  had  knocked  off,  and 
piling  them  together  on  one  corner  of  his  robe,  carefully  examines  each 
one.  Some  are  rejected  at  a  glance,  some  put  in  a  pile  together  as  sat- 
isfactory. [Next],  he  takes  in  his  left  palm  a  pad  of  buckskin  large 
enough  to  cover  and  protect  it  while  holding  the  sharp  flake,  while  over 
liis  right  hand  he  slips  another  piece  of  tanned  hide  something  like  a 
sailmaker's  '  palm,'  and  used  for  the  same  purpose.  Against  his  *  palm  ' 
the  arrow-maker  places  the  head  of  a  small  tool  —  a  straight  piece  of 
deer  or  antelope  horn  or  of  small  bone  —  about  four  inches  long,  and 
pressing  its  point  against  the  side  of  the  piece  of  flint  held  in  the  other 
Tiand,  he  flakes  off  one  little  chip  of  the  stone  and  then  another  close  to 
it,  thus  passing  along  the  edge  of  the  unformed  flint  until  one  side  of  it 
is  straight,  and  then  along  the  other.  *  *  *  Sometimes  an  unseen 
check  will  cause  the  head  to  break  across  without  warning,  and  the  labor 
expended  on  this  particular  piece  is  then  wasted.  But  usually  the  arrow- 
maker  works  rapidly  and  spoils  but  few  points.  *  *  *  j  have  seen  a 
beautiful  and  perfect  dagger,  six  or  eight  inches  long,  made  from  a  piece 
of  glass  bottle."  —  Grinnell,  147,  et  seq. 

Chase  gives  a  similar  account,  but  says  that  iron  points  have  now 
taken  the  place  of  the  bone  or  horn  points  formerly  used. 

The  Plains  Indians  lay  the  flat  side  of  a  flake  of  obsidian  on  a 
blanket,  or  other  yielding  substance,  and  with  a  knife  nick  off  the  edges 


Hozu  Arrozv  Heads  are  Made.  639 

rapidly.  In  th^ir  primitive  state  they  probably  used  buckskin  instead  of 
the  blankets,  and  pointed  bone  or  horn  instead  of  a  knife. —  Crook;  in 
Sm.  Rep.,  1871,  p.  420. 

Holding  the  flake  in  his  left  hand  [in  the  same  manner  as  the  Kla- 
math], he  places  the  point  of  a  punch  where  the  flake  is  to  start;  an  assist- 
ant then  strikes  the  punch  a  quick  rebounding  blow  with  a  stone  hammer. 
This  punch  was  made  of  a  whale's  tooth ;  it  "  is  about  six  or  seven  inches 
in  length,  and  one  inch  in  diameter,  with  one  rounded  and  two  plane 
sides ;  therefore  presenting  one  acute  and  two  obtuse  angles  to  suit  the 
points  to  be  broken." — Catlin,  Rambles,  188. 

The  ''rebounding  blow"  is  one  of  the  necessary  features  in 
procuring  large  flakes.  It  is  delivered  by  means  of  a  flexible 
handle  to  a  stone  hammer,  or  by  relaxing  the  muscles  controlling 
the  wrist.  The  downward  impulse  of  the  blow  is  checked  im- 
mediately before  the  instant  of  impact,  and  the  hammer  flies 
back  as  soon  as  it  touches  the  block.  In  this  manner  a  flake  may 
be  detached  from  a  stone  which  would  shatter  if  struck  in  the 
ordinary  manner.  The  Fuegians  use  a  similar  process  and  make 
as  fine  implements. —  Catlin,  Rambles,  290. 

In  making  very  large  implements,  such  as  spades  or  hoes,  a  notch 
six  inches  in  depth  was  made  in  one  side  of  a  tree;  the  farther  side  of 
this  was  perpendicular  and  the  bottom  horizontal.  On  the  bottom  a 
slab  of  hard  rock  was  placed.  A  short  distance  above  this  rock  a  small 
hole  was  made  in  the  back  part  of  the  notch.  Into  this  hole  was  set 
one  end  of  the  leg-bone  of  a  deer,  and  under  this,  resting  on  the  flat 
rock,  a  piece  of  chert  was  placed,  on  edge.  The  implement  was  worked 
into  shape  by  pressure  with  the  bone,  the  position  of  the  chert  being 
changed  as  necessary.  —  Webster,  601. 

"  Mr.  Peale  said  he  had  seen  squaws  chipping  flakes  into  small  arrow- 
points,  holding  the  flake  in  the  left  hand,  grasped  between  a  piece  of  bent 
leather,  and  chipping  off  small  flakes  by  pressure,  using  a  small  pointed 
bone  in  the  right  hand  for  that  purpose."  Catlin,  the  artist,  "  considered 
making  flakes  much  more  of  an  art  than  the  shaping  them  into  arrow 
or  spear  points,  for  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  stone  to 
be  flaked  was  essential,  as  a  slight  difference  in  its  quality  necessitated 
a  totally  different  mode  of  treatment."  He  described  a  tool  for  flaking. 
It  is  a  stick  of  varying  size  acording  to  the  sort  of  work.  In  one  end  is 
inserted  a  point  of  bone  or  horn  [antler],  to  the  other  a  cross-piece  is 
secured.  The  point  was  placed  where  the  flake  was  to  start,  and  the  cross- 
piece  against  the  chest  of  the  operator ;  a  vigorous,  sudden  thrust  split  the 
stone  to  the  desired  thickness.  For  very  large  flakes,  an  assistant  struck 
a  projection  on  the  shaft  with  a  club  or  heavy  hammer  at  the  instant  of 
pressure.  Usually  there  was  a  division  of  labor;  certain  workers  would 
quarry  the  stones  and  select  suitable  pieces,   which  others  would  dress 


640  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

into  shape  for  the  flakers  by  knocking  off  projections  or  defective  por- 
tions with  a  stone  hammer. 

A  great  workshop  near  the  mouth  of  the  Saline  River,  IlHnois,  is 
described.  More  than  six  acres  are  covered  with  flint  chips,  flakes  and 
refuse.  Nearly  all  this  debris  is  from  chert  quarries  three  miles  to  the 
southeast.  The  evidence  is  plain  that  implements  of  every  size  have  been 
made  here  from  these  flakes,  and  almost  invariably  by  pressure  from  the 
flat  [or  smooth]  side.  The  flake  is  laid  with  the  convex  side  downward, 
in  a  support,  and  held  firmly  with  one  hand.  "  The  handling  of  the  tool 
and  flake  to  form  an  arrow-point  is  as  much  an  act  requiring  exact- 
ness and  precision  as  the  handling  the  cold-chisel  and  hammer  is  to  the 
machinist."  The  "  dentiled "  or  "  beaded "  edges  and  serrated  edges 
and  angles  which  some  consider  "  marvels  of  artistic  execution  which 
can  not  be  imitated  in  the  present  age,"  are  "  but  the  natural  result  of  the 
mode  of  working."  It  is  easier  to  leave  these  "  saw-teeth  "  caused  by  the 
interlocking  of  the  flakes  at  their  meeting,  "  than  it  is  to  remove  them." 

In  attempting  to  make  the  large  agricultural  implements,  "  all  the 
experiments  that  I  have  tried  with  a  hammer,  whether  of  stone,  steel, 
soft  iron,  or  copper,  have  failed  to  produce  the  desired  result;  the  seat 
of  the  flake  is  much  more  conchoidal,  shorter  and  deeper  depressed  [that 
is,  the  "bulb  of  percussion"  is  more  pronounced],  whereas  the  direct 
percussive  pressure  throws  off  the  shape  of  the  flake  that  we  find  has  been 
done  in  making  these  spades."  Such  flakes,  however,  require  greater 
power  than  can  be  exerted  by  the  unaided  muscles.  This  is  accomplished 
by  "a.  mode  still  in  practice  among  remote  Indians."  A  projecting  root 
of  a  tree  is  flattened  to  afford  a  firm  support  for  the  block  of  flint;  in 
the  trunk,  just  above,  a  notch  is  cut  to  make  a  fulcrum;  a  bar  of  wood  is 
then  used  as  a  lever,  the  bone  or  horn  point  being  inserted  into  it  or  a 
pointed  stick  set  directly  on  the  stone.  One  man  then  brings  his  weight 
to  bear  on  the  outer  end  of  the  lever,  while  another  "  with  a  stone  mall 
or  heavy  club  strikes  a  blow  on  the  upper  side  of  the  lever,  directly  over 
the  pointed  stick  or  horn  point,  and  the  ffake  is  thrown  off."  —  Sellers: 
Chipping. 

"  Consolulu  brought  a  piece  of  obsidian,  a  fragment  of  a  deer  horn 
split  from  a  prong  lengthwise,  about  four  inches  in  length  and  half  an 
inch  in  diameter,  and  ground  off  squarely  at  the  ends — this  left  each  end  a 
semi-circle,  besides  two  deer  prongs  with  the  points  ground  down  into  the 
shape  of  a  square  sharp-pointed  file,  one  of  these  being  much  smaller  than 
the  other.  Holding  the  piece  of  obsidian  in  the  hollow  of  the  left  hand, 
he  placed  between  the  first  and  second  fingers  of  the  same  hand,  the  split 
piece  of  deer  horn  first  described,  the  straight  edge  of  the  split  deer  horn 
resting  against  about  one-fourth  of  an  inch  of  the  edge  of  the  obsidian — this 
being  about  the  thickness  of  the  flake  he  desired  to  split  off;  then  with  a 
small  stone  he  with  his  right  hand  struck  the  other  end  of  the  split  deer 
horn  a  sharp  blow.  A  perfect  flake  was  obtained,  showing  the  conchoidal 
fracture  peculiar  to  obsidian.  The  thickness  of  the  flake  to  be  split  off 
depends  upon  the  nearness  or  distance  from  the  edge  of  the  obsidian  on 
which  the  straight  edge  of  the  split   deer  horn  is  held  at  the  time  the 


How   Arrow   Heads   are   Made.  641 

blow  is  struck.  He  then  placed  in  the  palm  of  his  left  hand  a  piece  of 
thick  well-tanned  buckskin,  soft  and  pliable.  On  this  he  laid  the  flake 
of  obsidian,  which  he  held  firmly  in  its  place  by  the  first  three  fingers 
of  the  same  hand.  He  then  took  in  his  right  hand  the  larger  of  the 
two  deer  prongs,  and  holding  it  as  an  engraver  of  wood  holds  his  cut- 
ting instrument,  he  commenced  reducing  one  edge  of  the  circular  form 
of  the  flake  to  a  straight  line.  With  the  thumb  of  the  right  hand  resting 
on  the  edge  of  the  left  palm  as  a  fulcrum,  the  point  of  the  deer  prong 
would  be  made  to  rest  on  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  or  less  of  the  edge 
of  the  flake,  then  with  a  firm  downward  pressure  of  the  point,  a  con- 
choidal  fragment  would  be  broken  out  almost  always  of  the  size  desired. 
The  point  of  the  deer  prong  would  then  be  advanced  a  short  distance 
and  the  same  operation  repeated,  until  in  a  few  minutes  the  flake  was 
reduced  to  a  straight  line  on  one  edge.  As  this  operation  broke  all 
the  chips  from  the  under  side  of  the  flake,  if  left  in  this  condition  the 
arrow  would  be  unequally  proportioned,  that  is,  the  two  cutting  edges 
would  not  be  in  the  center  [meaning  the  middle  plane  of  the  implement]. 
He  therefore  with  the  side  of  the  deer  horn  firmly  rubbed  back  and  forth 
the  straight  edge  he  had  made  on  the  flake  until  the  sharp  edge  had 
been  broken  and  worn  down.  The  flake  was  now  turned  end  for  end 
in  the  palm  of  his  hand  and  the  chipping  renewed.  When  completed 
an  equal  amount  was  taken  from  each  side  of  the  edge  of  the  flake  and 
the  cutting  edge  was  left  in  the  center.  He  in  no  instance  appeared 
to  fail  in  breaking  out  with  the  point  of  deer  prong  the  exact  piece 
desired.  The  piece  of  deer  skin  seemed  to  serve  no  other  purpose  than 
to  save  his  hand  from  being  cut  by  the  countless  sharp  chips  as  they  were 
broken  oft".  One  of  the  long  sides  of  the  arrow-head  having  been  thus 
formed,  the  flake  was  turned  over  and  the  other  side  formed  in  the  same 
manner.  As,  however,  very  much  more  of  the  obsidian  had  to  be 
chipped  away,  he  brought  more  pressure  upon  the  point  and  broke  out 
larger  chips  until  the  flake  began  to  assume  the  shape  desired,  when  the 
same  care  was  exercised  as  when  the  first  straight  edge  was  made.  In 
breaking  out  large  or  small  chips  the  process  was  always  the  same. 
The  pressure  of  the  point  of  deer  horn  on  the  upper  edge  of  the  flake 
never  appeared  to  break  out  a  piece,  which,  on  the  upper  side,  reached 
beyond  where  the  point  rested,  while  on  the  under  side  the  chip  broken 
out  might  leave  a  space  of  twice  the  distance.  Invariably  when  a  line 
of  these  chips  had  been  broken  out  the  sharp  edge  was  rubbed  down, 
the  flake  turned  end  for  end  and  the  chipping  renewed  on  the  other  side. 
By  this  process  the  cutting  edges  of  the  arrow-head  were  kept  in  the 
same  line.  The  base  was  formed  in  the  same  manner.  He  now  held 
the  point  of  the  well-shaped  arrow-head  between  the  thumb  and  first 
finger  of  his  left  hand,  with  the  edge  of  the  arrow-head  upwards,  the 
base  resting  edgewise  on  the  deer  skin  cushion  in  the  palm.  He  then 
used  the  smaller  deer  prong,  which  had  been  sharpened  in  the  same 
form  as  the  larger  one,  but  all  its  proportions  in  every  respect  were  very 
much  smaller;  its  point  could  not  have  been  larger  than  one-sixteenth. 
41 


642 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


of  an  inch  square.  He  rested  this  point  on  the  edge  of  the  arrow- 
head where  he  desired  to  make  the  slot  [notch],  and  commenced  sawing 
back  and  forth  with  a  rocking  motion,  the  fine  chips  flew  from  each  side, 
the  point  of  the  deer  horn  descended,  and  in  less  than  a  minute  the  slot 
was  cut.  The  arrow-head  was  turned  over  and  the  same  operation 
repeated  on  the  other  side."  —  Redding,  Condensed. 

Redding  gives  two  cuts,  showing  the  flake  and  the  completed 
arrow-head.  These  are  reproduced  here  as  figure  238  (Amer. 
Nat.,  XIII,  No.  II,  Nov.,  1869,  p.  671). 


Figure 


Obsidian   Flake  and  Arrow-head  Made   from  It. 


**  Obsidian  and  agate  are  probably  selected,"  by  the  California  Indians, 
"not  so  much  for  beauty  of  coloring  as  for  their  close  grain,  which 
admits  of  more  careful  shaping.  They  use  a  tool  with  its  working  edge 
shaped  like  the  side  of  a  glazier's  diamond.  The  arrow-head  is  held  in 
the  left  hand,  while  the  nick  in  the  side  of  the  tool  is  used  as  a  nipper 
to  chip  off  small  fragments."  —  Cheever,  139. 

Peale  describes  a  tool  similar  to  the  last,  and  adds  that  the 
notches  are  different  sizes  to  suit  the  different  stages  of  the 
work. —  Stevens,  78. 

In  Southern  Nevada,  "The  shaping  of  the  points  and  the  chipping 
of  the  cutting  edges  were  effected  by  first  taking  a  piece  of  buckskin 
with  which  to  grasp  the  flake,  the  latter  being  securely  held  between 
the  tips  of  the  fingers  and  the  edge  or  base  of  the  thumb,  the  narrow 
edge  of  the  flake  protruding,  then  flaking  by  pressure  with  a  piece  of 
bone  or  a  bear's  claw  mounted  on  a  short  wooden  handle.  The  flaking 
instrument,  while  being  held  against  the  edge  of  the  flake  so  as  to  get 
•a  grip  and  prevent  slipping,   was  steadily,  but  forcibly,   directed  upward 


How  Arrow  Heads  are  Mad  643 

at  right  angles  to  the  axis  of  the  edge,  and  slightly  backward  and  toward 
the  left — that  is,  in  the  direction  of  the  base  of  the  arrow-head  when 
working  along  one  side,  and  toward  the  intended  point  when  flaking 
along  the  other."  —  Hoffman,  283. 

The  Apache  holds  the  flake  or  flint  in  his  left  hand,  places  his 
punch  at  the  point  where  the  chip  is  to  be  broken  off,  and  it  is  struck 
by  an  assistant,  thus  knocking  a  chip  from  the  under  side;  the  flake 
is  then  turned  and  the  process  repeated,  until  the  arrow  is  complete. 
The  stone  is  held  in  the  hand,  as  it  can  not  be  chipped  on  a  hard 
substance. —  Catlin,  Rambles,  184. 

"  To  make  the  notch  of  his  arrow  [the  Virginia  Indian]  hath  the 
tooth  of  a  beaver,  set  in  a  sticke,  wherewith  he  grateth  it  by  degrees.  His 
arrow  head  he  quickly  maketh  with  a  little  bone,  which  he  ever  weareth  at 
his  bracert,  of  any  splint  of  a  stone,  or  glass  in  the  forme  of  a  heart, 
and  these  they  glew  to  the  end  of  their  arrowes.  With  the  sinewes  of 
Deere,  and  the  tops  of  Deeres  homes  boyled  to  a  ielly,  they  make  a 
glew  that  will  not  dissolve  in  cold  water."  —  Smith,  132. 

"Craveri,  who  lived  sixteen  years  in  Mexico  *  *  *  relates  that 
when  the  Indians  wish  to  make  an  arrow-head  or  other  instrument  of  a 
piece  of  obsidian,  they  take  the  piece  in  the  left  hand,  and  hold  grasped 
in  the  other  a  small  goat's  horn ;  they  set  the  piece  of  stone  upon  the 
horn  and  dexterously  pressing  it  against  the  point  of  it,  while  they  give 
the  horn  a  gentle  movement  from  right  to  left,  up  and  down,  they  dis- 
engage from  it  frequent  chips,  and  in  this  way  obtain  the  desired  form. 
*  *  *  De  Pourtales  speaks  of  a  small  notch  in  the  end  of  the  bone  into 
which  the  edge  of  the  flake  is  inserted,  and  a  chip  broken  off  from  it  by 
a  sideways  blow."  —  Evans,  39. 

The  various  stages  of  work,  from  the  rough  block  to  the 
blank  ready  for  the  notches,  are  shown  by  the  series  of  partially 
completed  objects  illustrated  in  figure  239. 

THE    TIME    REQUIRED. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  in  this  connection  to  give  a  few 
quotations  in  regard  to  the  length  of  time  required  for  making 
an  arrow-head. 

According  to  the  Marquis  de  Nadaillac,  the  Mexicans  could 
turn  out  a  hundred  and  fifty  flint  knives  (probably  only  unworked 
obsidian  flakes)  an  hour  (Nadaillac,  170),  while  Crook  says  that 
the  Plains  Indians  with  only  a  knife  for  nicking  off  the  edges,  will 
make  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  knives  in  the  same  period  (Crook, 
420).  Chase  found  that  a  Klamath  Indian  required  five  minutes 
to  complete  a  perfect  arrow-head  (Chase)  ;  though  Stevens  ob- 
serves that  a  Shasta  Indian  spent  an  hour  in  chipping  one  from  a 
flake  of  obsidian  (Stevens,  yy),  and  Lubbock  states  that  the  most 


644 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  239  —  Progressive   Stages  in  Arrow-head   Making. 

skillful  Indian  workman  can  not  hope  to  complete  more  than  a 
single  arrow  in  a  day's  hard  work  (Lubbock,  io6).  Powers  also 
speaks  of  the  aborigines  of  California  as  "using  that  infinite  pa- 
tience which  is  characteristic  of  the  Indian,  spending  days,  per- 
haps weeks,  upon  a  single  piece  (Powers,  104)  ;"  and  Tylor  notes 


Various  Uses  of  Small  Flint  Implements.  645 

*'that  utter  disregard  of  time  that  lets  the  Indian  spend  a  month 
in  making  an  arrow-head"   (Mankind,  io8). 

The  last  two  references  are  probably  to  the  large  and  finely 
worked  pieces  for  ceremonial  or  ornamental  purposes. 

"  To  determine  exactly  how  many  minutes  were  requisite  for  mak- 
ing a  serviceable  arrow-head,  I  singled  out  an  Apache  at  random  and 
stipulated  that  he  should  employ  no  tools  of  iron,  but  allowed  him  to 
gather  from  the  ground  such  pieces  of  chalcedony  as  he  pleased.  He 
made  a  number  of  barbs,  the  time  *  *  being  five,  six,  seven,  and  eight 
minutes.  An  expert  would  have  completed  the  barbs  in  less  time.  *  * 
A  good  lance-head  could  not  be  perfected  quite  so  soon."  "  The  process 
of  manufacture  *  *  *  consisted  in  chipping  small  fragments  from 
the  edges  of  suitable  pieces  of  material,  the  chipping  implement  being  a 
portion  of  hardened  deer  or  elk  horn,  held  in  the  right  hand,  the  siliceous 
stone  being  held  in  the  left  over  a  flap  of  buckskin  to  protect  the  fingers." 
—  Bourke,  Vesper,  57. 

USES  OF  CHIPPED  FLINT  ARTICLES. 

A  casual  inspection  of  any  collection  of  arrow-heads,  spear- 
heads, and  knives,  would  impress  one  with  the  idea  that  the  forms 
are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  specimens.  No  two  of  them  are 
exactly  alike.  Yet  they  may  be  reduced  to  a  comparatively  few 
classes;  and  all  are  evolved  from  two  simple  primary  forms  — 
the  pointed  oval  or  "leaf-shaped,"  and  the  triangular.  These  two 
forms  may  be  combined,  or  modified,  to  make  four.  Either  may 
borrow  the  shape  of  its  base  from  the  other;  that  is  to  say,  a 
specimen  with  straight  edges  may  have  a  curved  base,  or  the 
base  of  the  one  with  curved  edges  m.ay  be  in  a  straight  line  from 
side  to  side.  From  these  four  basic  forms,  by  a  few  minor  touches 
from  a  shaping  tool  arise  the  varied  patterns  of  the  smaller  chip- 
ped flint  implements.  This  will  be  more  clearly  understood  if 
the  notches  of  any  specimen  be  filled  with  wax ;  or  a  tracing  be 
made  of  the  margin  without  any  regard  to  these  indentations. 

It  does  not  follow  that  flints  without  notches  are  unfinished. 
Such  objects  were  used  to  a  great  extent  as  knives,  scrapers  or 
spear-heads,  and  the  smaller  ones  sometimes  formed  the  tips  of 
arrows.  Abbott  (Amer.  Nat.,  X,  ii6)  mentions  three  triangular 
jasper  implements  three  or  four  inches  long  from  graves,  associ- 
ated with  fragments  of  large  bones  which  showed  plainly  that 
they  had  been  used  for  clubs,  after  the  manner  of  the  Iroquois 
weapon  which  had  a  sharp-pointed  deer-horn  about  four  inches 


646  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

long  inserted  in  the  lower  side.  Schoolcraft  (History,  II,  74,  Fig. 
5)  figures  a  pointed  stone  with  a  square  section  (apparently  one 
of  the  class  usually  called  "picks"),  mounted  in  a  club  which  is 
curved  at  the  end  to  let  the  spike  set  in  it  at  a  right  angle  to  the 
handle. 

"  In  the  western  mounds  rows  of  similar  chert  heads  have  been  found 
lying  side  by  side,  like  teeth,  the  row  being  about  two  feet  long.  This 
has  suggested  the  idea  that  they  were  set  in  a  frame  and  fastened  with 
thongs,  thus  making  a  species  of  sword."  —  Iroquois,  358. 

The  Mexicans  had  a  similar  sword,  with  obsidian  teeth  gummed  in 
holes  in  a  war-club  (Anahuac,  342),  and  at  Taos  Pueblo  a  similar  weapon 
was  observed,  with  iron  teeth. —  Bourke,  Snake  Dance  of  the  Moquis, 
251.     Dodge,  Indians,  plate  5. 

But  the  number  of  specimens  without  notches  found  mount- 
ed indicates  that  the  use  of  this  class  as  knives  or  scrapers  was 
a  general  custom. 

A  common  error  is  the  use  of  the  name  "dart"  or  "arrow- 
head" for  nearly  all  pointed  flint  implements.  The  name  fits  only 
the  minority  of  specimens,  as  none  but  the  smaller  ones  could  be 
so  used ;  the  larger  are  too  heavy.  It  is  wrongly  believed  that  the 
size  of  the  projectile  is  to  some  extent  gauged  by  the  size  of  the 
game  for  which  it  is  intended;  hence  the  popular  name  "bird- 
arrows"  applied  to  small,  delicately  wrought  points.  A  large 
weapon  would,  to  be  sure,  be  more  effective  than  a  small 
one,  if  the  propulsion  were  in  ratio  to  the  size;  but  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  power  of  a  bow  which  a  man  has  strength  to  bend, 
and  a  slender  arrow-point  may  pierce  the  body  of  an  animal 
whose  tough  hide  would  prevent  injury  from  a  large  missile  pro- 
pelled with  the  same  force.  The  longest  stone  arrow-head  in  the 
extensive  co-llection  of  arrows  in  the  National  Museum  measures 
two  and  five-eighths  inches  in  length  and  is  narrow  and  thin. 

''Colonel  Long  said  that  two  inches  was  the  greatest  length  of  stone 
arrow-heads  that  he  found  in  use  among  the  Indians ;  that  all  longer  not 
used  for  javelin  and  spear-heads  were  strongly  hafted  and  used  as  cutting 
implements.     This  was  confirmed  by  Catlin."  —  Sellers,   Chipping,  884. 

It  would  be  difficult,  however,  to  assign  any  certain  use  for 
a  particular  type,  the  markings  on  so  many  indicate  usage  for 
which  their  shape  would  seem  to  render  them  unsuitable.  It  is 
probable  that  a  single  specimen  served  a  variety  of  purposes.  A 
man  would  scarcely  provide  himself  with  an  assortment  of  hunt- 


Chipped  Flmt  Implements. 


647 


ing  knives,  for  example,  in  order  to  have  a  special  form  for  every 
demand  that  can  be  met  with  such  a  tool. 

A  variety  of  patterns  o-f  flint  arrows,  spears,  knives,  and 
other  pointed  or  edged  specimens  for  numerous  uses  is  shown  in 
figures  240  to  249.     The  types  in  figures  240,  241  and  242,  with 


Figure   240  —  Flints   with  Polished   Bases. 

but  few  exceptions,  have  the  bases  polished.  The  motive  for  this 
polishing  is  not  understood.  It  is  intentional,  because  it  can  not 
be  produced  by.  any  kind  of  wear  to  which  the  mounted  specimen 
is  liable.  It  can  not  be  due  to  the  implement  "working  loose  in 
the  handle,"  as  commonly  stated ;  because  in  such  a  case  the  polish 
would  be  most  apparent  on  the  face,  or  flat  side,  instead  of  on 
the  base. 


While  flint  was  most  suitable  for  various  purposes,  in  cases 
of  emergency  other  substances  might  be  utilized. 


648  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  241  —  Flints  with   Polished  Bases. 


Chipped  Flint  Implements,  649 


A  I 


Figure   242  —  Flints   with    Polished    Bases. 


650 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  243  —  Knives  or  Spear  Heads. 


Chipped  Flint  Implements, 


651 


Figure   244  —  Flint    Knives. 


652 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  245  — Flint  Knives. 


Chipped  Flint  ImHements,  663 


Figure  246  —  Roughly  Finished  Knives  or  Spear  Heads. 


654 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  247  —  Flint   Scrapers. 


Figure  848  —  Rare  Forms  of  Knives  and  Scrapers, 


Chipped  Flint  Implements. 


655 


\ 


V 


/ 


-i 


Pigure  249  —  Unusual  Forms,  Possibly  for  Cutting  or  Scraping. 


666  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Some  "  Indians  are  very  expert  in  striking  large  fish  out  of  their 
canoes,  with  long  sharp-pointed  green  canes,  which  are  well  bearded  and 
hardened  in  the  fire."  "  Formerly  they  made  their  knives  of  flint  stone, 
or  of  split  canes  and  sometimes  they  are  now  forced  to  use  the  like,  in 
flaying  wild  animals,  when  in  their  winter  hunt  they  have  the  misfortune 
to  lose  their  knives."  —  Adair,  403  and  410. 

"  For  his  knife  he  hath  the  splinter  of  a  Reed  to  cut  his  feathers  in 
forme.  With  this  knife  also,  he  will  ioynt  a  Deere,  or  any  beast,  shape  his 
shooes,  buskins,  mantels,  &c."  —  Smith,  132. 


While  it  is  likely  that  the  smaller  flints  were  intended  for 
arrows,  it  can  not  be  stated  with  confidence  whether  they  were  for 
use  in  war  or  in  hunting. 

"  The  war  arrow  differs  from  that  used  for  hunting,  in  having  a 
barbed  spear-head,  very  slightly  attached  to  the  wood,  so  that  if  it  pene- 
trate the  body  of  an  enemy,  it  cannot  be  withdrawn  without  leaving  the 
point  in  the  wound."  —  Long,  Rockies,  I,  291. 

"  The  shape  of  the  iron  arrow-head  indicates  the  use  to  which  it  is 
expected  to  be  put.  Hunting  arrows  have  long,  tapering  blades,  the  rear 
shoulders  sloping  backward.  The  blade  is  firmly  fastened  to  the  shaft, 
and  can  easily  be  withdrawn  from  the  wound.  The  war  arrow  has  a 
short,  sharp  blade,  like  a  lancet;  the  rear  shoulders  slope  forward,  forming 
barbs ;  their  attachment  to  the  shaft  is  very  slight,  as  it  is  intended  that 
the  head  shall  re.main  in  the  wound."  —  Dodge,  Indians,  419. 

The  case  was  presumably  the  same  with  arrow-heads  made  of 
flint ;  but  it  is  also  probable  that  some  war  points  were  made  with 
lo'ng  or  wide  barbs,  and  firmly  attached  to  the  shaft,  in  order 
that  when  extracted  the  barbs  would  mangle  the  flesh  and  enlarge 
the  wound.  On  the  other  hand,  if  an  arrow-head  be  made  with 
long  barbs,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  pull  from  a  wound,  and  at  the 
same  time  be  firmly  bound,  it  has  the  form  best  adapted  for  hunt- 
ing some  kinds  of  game.  The  dragging  of  the  shaft  against 
weeds  and  bushes  will  impede  the  flight  o-f  an  animal  to  some 
extent,  while  the  point,  from  the  same  cause,  will  still  further 
cut  and  pierce  the  internal  organs,  thus  more  rapidly  exhaust- 
ing the  prey. 

In  many  modern  arrows  with  triangular  points  the  sinew 
with  which  the  flint  is  fastened  to  the  shaft  is  brought  over  the 
corner  or  shoulder  in  such  a  way  that  it  binds  the  point  as  fiirmly 
as  could  be  do-ne  if  it  were  barbed  or  stemmed,  so  that  when  the 
shaft  is  drawn  from  the  wound  the  point  must  come  with  it.  If 
an  arrow-head  of  this  form  were  inserted  in  a  shaft,  which  was 


Aboriginal  Methods  of  Drilling.  657 

then  wrapped  behind  the  flint,  the  latter  would  remain  in  the 
wound  when  the  shaft  was  withdrawn. 

OTHER  FORMS  OF  FLINT  IMPLEMENTS. 
PERFORATORS. 

The  implements  variously  classed  by  different  writers  as 
awls,  drills,  needles,  rimmers  or  reamers,  and  the  like,  represent 
a  graded  series,  and  as  no  distinction  can  be  made  in  the  differ- 
ent kinds,  if,  indeed,  there  is  any  roo-m  for  distinction,  they  are 
grouped  under  one  term,  ''perforators."  Many  of  them,  in  widely 
different  forms,  have  polished  edges  and  points,  the  result  of 
drilling  other  stones. 

There  was  found  in  New  York,  an  unfinished  "banner-stone,"  partly 
perforated  lengthwise,  with  the  drill  remaining  in  the  bore.  The  drill 
is  of  black  hornstone,  carefully  chipped  and  entire.  It  most  resembles 
the  small,  thin,  triangular  arrow-heads,  except  that  the  point  is  rounded 
instead  of  sharp. —  Rau,  Drill,  540. 

Thick,  strong  specimens  with  triangular  or  rhomboidal  sec- 
tion are  well  adapted  for  making  the  small  holes  in  shell,  slate, 
and  material  of  a  like  degree  of  hardness. 

In  "the  manufacture  of  articles  requiring  perforation,  I  was  informed 
that  the  Menomini  used  sharp-pointed  pieces  of  quartz  and  jasper,  rotat- 
ing these  rude  drills  with  the  hand  and  fingers."  —  Hoffman,  266. 

"  With  an  ordinary  arrow  held  between  the  hands  and  vertically 
revolved,  the  Apaches  bored  holes  in  beads.  A  bead  of  [turquoise]  was 
made  in  my  presence,  under  very  disadvantageous  circumstances,  in  a 
trifle  less  than  twenty-six  minutes."  —  Bourke,  Amer.  Anth.,  Jan.  1890, 
p.  61. 

Before  leaving  this  subject,  it  is  proper  to  state  that  primi- 
tive man  must  have  placed  but  little  dependence  upon  flint  in  his 
requirements  for  a  drilling  instrument.  Evans  specifies  five  ways 
of  making  holes  in  stones,  viz. : — 

(1)  Chiseling  or  picking  with  "picks,"  "celts,"  or  "drills,"  of  flint 
or  other  stone;  (2)  boring  with  a  solid  borer,  as  wood,  hard  or  soft,  or 
horn,  with  sand  and  water;  (3)  grinding  with  a  tubular  grinder,  as  horn, 
cane,  elder,  etc.,  with  sand  and  water;  (4)  drilling  with  a  stone  drill, 
e.  g.,  of  flint  or  sandstone;  (5)  drilling  or  punching  with  metal.  "  Holes 
produced  by  any  of  these  means  could,  of  course,  receive  their  final  pol- 
ish by  grinding."  "  Dr.  Keller,  after  making  some  experiments  with 
a  hollow  bone  and  quartz  sand,  tried  a  portion  of  ox-horn,  which  he  found 
surprisingly  more  effective,  the  sand  becoming  imbedded  in  the  horn  and 
acting  like  a  file."  —  Evans,  50  and  52, 
42 


658  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  I  have  myself  bored  perfectly  round  and  smooth  holes  through 
both  stag's  horn  and  wood  with  flint  flakes,  and  when  a  little  water  is 
used  to  facilitate  the  operation,  it  is  almost  surprising  to  find  how 
quickly  it  proceeds,  and  how  little  the  edge  of  the  flint  suffers  when  once 
its  thinnest  part  has  been  worn  or  chipped  away,  so  as  to  leave  a  sufficient 
thickness  of  flint  to  stand  the  strain  without  being  broken  off."  — 
Evans,  321. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  the  aboriginal  American  was 
acquainted  with  all  these  methods;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
there  is  no  evidence  he  made  use  of  any  metal  except  copper ;  and 
very  little  of  this  served  him  for  any  economic  purpose  in  Ohio. 

Among  the  various  ways  in  which  this  work  was  done  by 
savages,  the  following  have  been  observed : — 

The  Nootka,  in  boring  wood,  use  a  bird  bone  drill  worked  between 
the  hands  (Bancroft,  H.  H.,  I,  189).  The  Santa  Barbara  Indians  chip 
out  rough  disks  of  shell,  pierce  them  with  a  flint  drill,  and  enlarge  the 
tholes  with  a  slender,  round  piece  of  sandstone  (Schumacher,  in,  Hayden, 
1877,  p.  43).  The  Atlantic  coast  Indians  drilled  shell  beads  with  a  nail 
-Stuck  in  a  cane  or  stick,  rolling  the  drill  on  their  thighs  with  the  right 
hand  and  holding  the  shell  in  their  left  (Brickell,  339);  and  the  southern 
Indians  pierced  shell  beads  with  heated  copper  drills  (Jones,  230).  Such 
operations  are  not  the  result  of  high  mechanical  skill,  but  merely  of  the 
most  simple  and  savage  processes. —  Mankind,  188. 

"  The  Indians  made  pipes  which  are  excavated  by  means  of  friction 
with  harder  substances  and  the  intervention  of  sand  and  water."  [From 
Hunter.]  "  Their  pipes  were  made  artificially,  as  ours  are,  but  far  bigger, 
with  the  bowl  fashioned  together  with  a  piece  of  fine  copper."  [From 
Smith].  — McGuire,  Drilling,  639. 

In  his  letters  describing  the  Sioux,  Catlin  refers  to  their  use  of  the 
material  from  the  Pipe-stone  quarries;  and  on  plate  98  figures  several 
of  their  pipes  which  are  as  ornate  and  well  carved  as  any  specimens  of 
this  nature  found  in  the  mounds.  In  making  them  "the  Indians  shape 
out  the  bowls  of  these  pipes  *  *  *  with  nothing  but  a  knife."  They 
make  the  hole  "  by  drilling  into  it  with  a  hard  stick,  shaped  to  the  desired 
size,  with  a  quantity  of  sharp  sand  and  water  kept  constantly  in  the  hole." 
—  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  234. 

"  In  the  recent  excavations  of  graves  [in  southern  California],  bundles 
■of  thin  triangular  pieces  or  spicules  of  hornstone  have  been  found.  Each 
of  these  bundles  contains  several  hundred  specimens,  the  individual  drills 
'being  flaked  from  a  core  so  as  to  be  almost  perfectly  triangular  longitud- 
inally, gradually  tapering  to  a  sharp  point.  These  specimens  have  an 
average  length  of  an  inch  and  three-fourths,  and  a  diameter  at  the  thicker 
end  not  exceeding  one-eighth  of  an  inch.  These  delicate  drills  had  no 
'doubt  been  employed  in  making  the  indentations  at  the  ends  of  the 
cylindrical  beads,  which  subsequently  served  as  a  starting  point  for  the 
ibristle  drill  used  in  perforating  the  entire  length  of  the  bead.     In  several 


Experiments  in  Drilling  with  Primitive  Tools.  659 

graves  *  *  *  there  were  found  *  *  *  bundles  of  whiskers 
or  bristles  of  the  sea  lion."  On  Santa  Cruz  Island  are  found  shell  beads 
"4  or  5  inches  in  length,  with  a  bore  just  large  enough  to  permit  the 
passage  of  a  broom  straw.  Even  smaller  perforations  are  noted."  Broken 
specimens  showed  that  a  depression  was  first  made  with  the  small  flint 
drill,  "the  bristle  was  next  applied,  and  twisted  or  rotated  between  the 
thumb  and  fingers,  while,  at  the  point  of  contact  with  the  shell,  siliceous 
silt  or  fine  sand  was  applied  to  aid  in  cutting  away  the  calcareous  mat- 
ter of  the  shell.  The  soft  stratum  between  two  layers  of  the  harder 
enamel  was  naturally  followed  by  the  drill,  thus  without  the  slightest 
difficulty  causing  the  perforation  to  be  curved,  from  end  to  end,  to 
conform  to  the  convexity  of  the  shell."  —  Hoffman,  266-7. 

Sometimes  a  long  curved  shell  was  drilled  from  each  end,  the 
holes  meeting  at  some  point  near  the  middle.  This  method  is 
illustrated  in  figure  250  (McGuire,  figure  4). 


Figure  250  —  Illustrating  the  manner  of  drilling  curved  objects. 

On  the  Rio  Negro.  "  I  now  saw  several  of  the  men  with  their 
most  peculiar  and  valued  ornament  —  a  cylindrical,  opaque,  white  stone, 
looking  like  marble,  but  which  is  really  quartz  imperfectly  crystallized. 
These  stones  are  from  four  to  eight  inches  long  and  about  an  inch  in 
diameter.  They  are  ground  round,  and  flat  at  the  ends,  a  work  of  great 
labor,  and  are  pierced  with  a  hole  at  one  end,  through  which  a  string  is 
inserted,  to  suspend  it  around  the  neck.  It  appears  almost  incredible 
that  they  should  make  this  hole  in  so  hard  a  substance  without  any  iron 
instrument  for  the  purpose.  What  they  are  said  to  use  is  the  pointed 
flexible  leaf-shoot  of  the  large  wild  plantain,  triturating  with  fine  sand 
and  a  little  water ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  is,  as  it  is  said  to  be,  a  labor 
of  years.  Yet  it  must  take  a  much  longer  time  to  pierce  that  which 
the  [chief]  wears  as  the  symbol  of  his  authority,  for  it  is  generally  of 
the  largest  size,  and  is  worn  transversely  across  the  breast,  for  which 
purpose  the  hole  is  bored  lengthways  from  one  end  to  the  other,  an 
operation  which  I  was  informed  sometimes  occupies  two  lives.  The  stones 
themselves  are  procured  from  a  great  distance  up  the  river,  probably 
from  near  its  sources  at  the  base  of  the  Andes;  they  are  therefore 
highly  valued."  —  Wallace,  278. 

McGuire  disputes  the  correctness  of  Wallace's  statement. 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  Wallace  speaks  entirely  from  what  he 
has  been  told.  *  *  *  It  is  known  that  such  twirling  would  cut  the 
hole  of  the  indicated  size  in  a  comparatively  few  days  with  the  proper 
abrading  tools  or  material.  Even  with  quartz  sand  the  work  would 
require   but    a    few    weeks,    though   engaged    in   only   during   the    leisure 


660  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

hours  of  the  workman.  *  *  *  Even  if  these  tubes  were  eight  inches 
long,  to  make  a  hole  the  entire  length  of  the  cylinder,  should  not  require 
a  month,  and  the  average  white  man,  given  a  couple  of  days  to  familiarize 
himself  with  the  tool,  would  decrease  the  time  here  allowed  by  one-half." 
—  McGuire,  Drilling,  670  and  695. 

"  Recent  investigations  are  fast  forcing  the  conclusion  that  primitive 
mechanical  methods  did  not  entail  the  vast  amount  of  patience  which 
they  would  be  supposed  to  require."  In  drilling  catlinite  "it  was  found 
that  drill  points  either  of  stone  or  metal  readily  took  hold  of  the  mineral 
and  cut  rapidly  as  long  as  the  edges  of  the  points  were  kept  rough. 
Solid  points  of  wood  or  bone  were  not  effective,  as  they  made  very 
slight  headway  and  had  a  tendency  to  polish  rather  than  to  cut.  With 
the  use  of  the  dry  sand,  however,  some  wood  was  found  almost  as  effective 
in  cutting  as  stone  or  metal.  *  *  *  ^  brass  cylinder  bored  catlinite 
with  comparative  ease  so  long  as  its  edges  were  kept  rough,  yet  ham- 
mered copper  cut  it  much  better  owing  to  the  particles  of  quartz  crystal 
taken  up  by  the  copper,  the  reason  of  which  was  that  the  copper  was  ham- 
mered into  shape  with  a  quartzite  hammer,  whereas  the  brass  had  no 
grit  in  it  and  consequently  wore  smooth  when  the  copper  did  not.  Water 
was  found  to  be  impracticable  for  use  in  boring  catlinite,  as  the  material 
ground  into  powder  made  a  cement  on  becoming  wet,  and  formed  a 
hard  crust  in  the  perforation,  until  the  shaft  choked  and  would  no  longer 
revolve,  unless  it  was  cleaned  out.  *  *  *  jj^  boring  with  drill  points 
of  stone  or  metal  without  sand,  choking  usually  begins  to  cause  trouble 
at  about  five-eighths  of  an  inch  from  the  surface.  In  using  the  metal 
drill  on  most  stones,  water  obviates  choking,  and  sand  and  water  make 
the  work  progress  more  easily.  *  *  *  if^  however,  a  wooden  shaft 
point  is  being  employed,  water  retards  the  work  very  materially  by 
softening  the  wood  and  allowing  the  sand  to  cut  the  drill  point  away. 
*  *  *  A  hard  wood  rolls  the  sand  and  rounds  its  edges;  *  *  *  jf 
the  shaft  is  too  soft  [it  wears  rapidly].  In  the  writer's  experience  he 
has  found  hickory  as  much  too  hard  as  pine  is  too  soft  for  drill  points. 
Ash  apparently  furnishes  one  of  the  best  shafts." — McGuire,  Drilling,  660. 

"  A  copper  drill  point  such  as  the  writer  has  often  employed  [is] 
made  by  battering  a  nugget  of  native  copper  into  a  plate,  by  means  of  a 
quartzite  hammer,  and  then  setting  the  plate  on  edge  on  a  stone  and 
tapping  it  with  another  stone  until  it  assumes  a  cylindrical  form.  In 
hammering  this  nugget  into  shape  the  copper  has  had  beaten  into  it  fine 
particles  of  the  crystals  of  the  stone,  which  are  firmly  imbedded  into 
the  metal,  so  that  as  the  copper  wears  the  crystal  begins  to  cut.  This 
implement  the  writer  has  found  to  make  a  most  excellent  cutting  tool, 
equal  to  almost  any  tried  in  the  course  of  his  experiments."  With  slender 
rods  or  tubes  of  copper,  so  prepared,  "  the  writer  has  bored  crystallized 
quartz."  —  McGuire,  Drilling,  685. 


Methods  of  Drilling.  661 

In  the  order  of  effectiveness  and  rapid  progress,  McGuire 
found  the  gradation  of  driUing  tools  to  be :  copper  tube ;  reed ; 
elder ;  bored  wood ;  copper  rod ;  and  wooden  stick.  With  a  solid 
rod  of  any  sort,  all  the  material  to  be  removed  must  be  ground 
away;  but  with  a  tube  a  ring  is  cut  out  a  little  wider  than  the 
thickness  of  the  drill,  leaving  a  core  which  falls  out  when  the 
work  is  completed. 

Figure  251  (McGuire,  13)  represents 

"a  pipe  made  from  a  block  of  catlinite  by  a  Sioux  chief,  his  only 
tools  being  a  knife,  with  which  the  stone  was  cut,  and  a  piece  of  wire 
by  means  of  which  it  was  bored.  *  *  *  Not  being  able  to  pierce  the 
entire  stem  in  any  other  way,  a  perforation  has  been  made  from  the 
outside  at  the  base  of  the  stem,  from  which  a  hole  was  bored  jnto  the 


Figure  251  —  Modern  Sioux  Pipe,  made  of  Catlinite. 

bowl,  and  a  second  one  met  the  perforation  which  had  been  made  from 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  stem,  after  which  the  hole  in  the  base  of  the 
stem  has  been  plugged  with  a  piece  of  lead,  neatly  fitted  into  the  stone, 
thus  completing  a  continuous  tube."  —  McGuire,  Drilling,  635. 

The  conical  hole  naturally  results  from  the  wear  of  the  drill, 
especially  one  of  wood.  An  example  is  shown  in  figure  252  (Nat. 
Mus.,  1894,  page  639,  figure  20). 

Figure  253   (McGuire,  42), 

"  shows  two  holes  bored  through  a  block  of  catlinite  with  the 
same  drill,  the  end  of  the  drill  shaft  having  in  one  instance  a  thin 
mercantile  copper  cylinder  [tube]  for  a  point,  and  in  the  other  case  a 
[joint]  from  a  li  inch  water  pipe,  about  three-eighths  of  an  inch  thick. 
*  *  *  Each  of  these  tubes  was  used  with  sharp  quartz  sand ;  begin- 
ning with  the  use  of  the  water  pipe,  after  perforating  a  hole  one-third 
•of  an  inch  deep,  because  of  the  thickness  of  the  pipe,  which  caused  the 
removal  of  such  an  unnecessary  amount  of  material,  the  perforation  was 
completed  with  the  thin  copper  cylinder.  The  striae  on  the  core,  as 
also  on  the  interior  of  the  cylinder,  were  very  distinct,  being  caused,  as 
they  were,  by  grains  of  sand  working  in  one  place  as  the  drill  alternated 
back  and  forth."  —  McGuire,  Drilling,  654. 

In  figure  254  (McGuire,  69)   is  shown 


662 


Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 


"  the  typical  wood-boring  tool  common  to  the  northern  conti- 
nent, for  which  purpose  this  shape  is  more  suitable  than  another.  *  *  * 
It  will  bore  through  an  inch  pi  wood  in  from  three  to  fiv«  minutes, 
depending  upon  the  velocity  of  the  drill.  To  bore  a  hole  in  a  block 
of  steatite  of  similar  depth  would  require  very  little  more  time."  — 
McGuire,  Drilling,  681. 

The  manner  in  which  the  ordinary  hand-drill  is  applied  to  its 
work,  may  be  seen  in  figure  255. 

'*  The  perforations  and  hollows  of  the  mound-pipes,  and  of  some 
other  objects,  are  drilled  with  extreme  accuracy,  showing  that  the  tool 
used  was  not  merely  turned  between  the  hands,  but  was  moved  by  an 
arrangement  probably  resembling  the  '  bow-drill '   used  by  watchmakers 


Figure    252. 


Figure   253. 
Experiments   in   Drilling. 


Figure    254  —  Flint    Drill. 


and  others.  The  ordinary  '  bow-drill '  consists  of  a  straight  tool,  which 
passes  through-  the  center  of  a  disc  grooved  on  the  outside,  motion 
being  imparted  to  the  tool  by  means  of  a  bow,  the  string  of  which  is 
made,  to  encircle  the  disc.  It  appears  probable  that  a  ring  may  have 
formed  part  of  a  drilling  apparatus  somewhat  of  this  kind."  —  Stevens, 
511. 

It  is  suggested  that  the  ''pulley-rings''  found  by  Squier  and 
Davis  at  the  Hopewell  mound,  and  in  the  Cincinnati  mound  as 
described  by  Dr.  Drake,  may  have  been  used  with  bow-drills; 
it  is  not  known  whether  they  show  the  marks  of  wear  that  would 
result  from   such  use. 

With  a  bow-drill  and  stone  point,  McGuire  drilled  a  hole  through 
a  siliceous  rock  an  inch  and  a  half  thick  in  three  hours.  A  hole  five 
inches  deep  was  drilled  in  a  piece  of  catlinite  in  three  hours ;  this  is 
about  as  hard  as  banded  slate.— iMcGuire,  Lapidary. 


Methods  of  Drilling. 


663 


Different  forms  of  bow-drills,  and  methods  of  using  them,  are 
shown  in  figures  256  to  260  (from  McGuire). 

For  some  reason,  Rau  could  not  make  the  progress  which 
McGuire  considers  possible.  With  a  pump-drill,  he  undertook 
to  perforate 


Figure  257.  Figure  258. 

Primitive  Methods  of   Drilling  and   Fire-making. 

"  a  piece  of  diorite  If  inches  thick,  so  hard  that  the  point  of  a 
well-tempered  knife  produces  no  scratch  upon  its  surface.  At  first,  a  piece 
of  ash  was  used  as  a  shaft;  but  pine  proved  to  be  just  as  efficient.  The 
material  used  in  drilling  was  a  sharp  quartz  sand  of  middle  grain.  Emery- 
was  not  more  effectual  than  sand.  The  work  was  tedious  beyond  descrip- 
tion. Every  five  or  six  minutes  the  bore  had  to  be  cleaned  by  immers- 
ing the  stone  in  water,  the  sand  being  by  that  time  perfectly  ground, 
and  forming  in  connection  with  the  water  and  the  particles  of  wood 
rubbed  from  the  stick,  a  sort  of  paste  which  was  no  longer  service- 
able for  drilling.  Two  hours  of  constant  drilling  added,  on  an  average, 
not  more  than  the  thickness  of  an  ordinary  lead-pencil  line  to  the  depth 
of  the  hole."  —  Drilling,   condensed.        • 


664 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  261  (McGuire,  48)  illustrates  one  of  McGuire's 

"  experiments  in  boring  a  stone  by  means  of  the  pump-drill.  It 
is  of  siliceous  material  and  is  quite  hard.  The  point  used  in  drilling 
this  object  was  of  jasper.  It  required  about  three  hours'  labor  to  both 
shape  and  bore  it."  —  McGuire,  Drilling,  662,  condensed. 


Figure   259. 

Primitive  Methods  of  Drilling  and  Fire-making. 


Figure 


Figure  261. 


Figure 


Experiments  in   Drilling. 


McGuire  shows  several  other  objects  which  were  drilled 
by  him  in  various  ways;  among  them,  the  one  reproduced  in 
figure  262   (McGuire  36). 

This  was 

"  a  steatite  ceremonial  implement  which  was  pecked  with  a  stone 
hammer  into  shape  by  the  writer,  bored  by  means  of  a  pump  drill  with  a 
wooden  shaft  and  sand,  ground  smooth  with  a  piece  of  sandstone,  next 
with  a  jasper  pebble,  and  finally  rubbed  with  a  piece  of  wood  and  a 
piece  of  buckskin  as  a  polisher.  This  implement  is  shaped  entirely  by 
the  eye,  the  hole  meets  with  accuracy  in  the  middle,  and  the  surface  is 
as  smooth  if  not  smoother  than  the  average  implement  of  Indian  manu- 


Perforators  Made  of  Flint. 


665 


facture.  Less  than  five  hours  was  required  to  make  this  object  To 
have  made  it  of  indurated  clay  would  possibly  have  required  a  days 
work."  —  McGuire,  Drilling,  650. 

He  thinks  it  probable  that  emery  was  used  in  drilling  the 
harder  materials  (McGuire,  Drilling,  631)  ;  but  does  not  explain 
how  this  may  have  been  obtained  by  the  aborigines. 

Many  flint  objects,  usually  classed  with  perforators,  were 
available 'for  very  different  branches  of  labor.     Some  were  no 


Figure   263  —  Flint   Perforating   Tools. 

doubt  used  after  the  manner  of  burins  in  the  manufacture  of 
pipes,  ornaments,  and  sculptures,  and  especially  for  executing 
the  incised  lines  on  inscribed  shells  and  stones. 

Bushmen  are  known  to  use  triangular  pieces  of  flint  for  cutting  fig- 
ures in  rock. —  Holub,  460. 

"  Hundreds  of  beautiful  stone  axes  and  ornaments  have  been  found 
in  the  immense  tumuli  of  Brittany.  Experiments  prove  that^  the  stone  can 
be  cut  with  flint,  while  bronze  produces  no  effect  on  it."  "  The  engrav- 
ings on  the  Scotch  rocks,  even  those  on  granite,  may  have  been  carved 
with  a  flint  tool."  —  Lubbock,   119. 

Slender  specimens  with  sharp  points  would  make  excellent 
piercing  tools,  necessary  in  the  manufacture  of  articles  from 
skins  or  leather.     A  series  of  these  appears  in  figure  263. 


666  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Drills  with  slender  blades,  and  wide  base  or  long  barbs,  are- 
the  perfection  of  hunting  arrows.  They  would  deeply  penetrate 
the  body  of  an  animal  and  resist  any  attempt  to  pull  them  from 
the  wound.  Thus  all  of  them  could  be  recovered  when  the  game 
was  secured. 

Despite  their  popular  name,  comparatively  few  of  these  spec- 
imens could  be  used  as  drills ;  most  of  them  are  too  fragile.  The 
thicker,  stronger  pieces  would  answer  very  well  for  drilling  shells 
and  thin  tablets  of  slate  or  similar  stone.  Those  which  are  dou- 
ble pointed  and  slender,  may  have  been  used  for  bait-holders  in 
fishing. 

"  There  have  been  found  in  the  cave  debris  of  Southern  France 
small  bone  rods  tapering  toward  both  ends,  and  sometimes  grooved 
around  the  middle,  to  facilitate  the  fastening  of  a  line.  These  pointed 
rods  are  employed  in  fishing  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America."  — 
Fishing,  12. 

Bait-holders  similar  in  form  to  the  above  are,  or  were  until 
quite  recently,  in  use  among  the  Indians  of  Florida.  They  dif- 
fered only  in  having  a  perforation  instead  of  a  groove  at  the 
middle.  A  line  was  passed  through  this  hole  and  tied,  and  a 
"half-hitch"  taken  over  one  point.  The  rod,  upon  which  the 
bait  was  placed,  was  thus  made  to  hang  vertically  in  the  water. 
When  swallowed  by  a  fish,  a  slight  jerk  released  the  loop  and 
the  bait-holder,  assuming  a  position  at  right  angles  to  the  line, 
held  as  firmly  as  a  hook. 


BLUNT   ARROWHEADS^    OR    """^  BUNTS."" 

Certain  arrowheads  have  the  end  opposite  the  base  rounded 
or  flattened  instead  of  pointed.  Commonly,  both  faces  are  worked 
of¥  equally,  to  bring  the  edge  opposite  the  middle  line  of  the 
blade,  though  sometimes  it  may  be  a  little  to  one  side.  The  stem 
and  base  are  of  any  form  found  in  the  common  patterns  of  arrow- 
heads. Few  are  barbed,  though  many  have  shoulders.  For  the 
most  part,  they  are  probably  made  from  the  ordinary  spearpoints 
or  arrowheads  and  knives  that  have  had  the  points  broken  off, 
though  some  seem  to  have  been  intentionally  made  this  way  orig- 
inally. A  few  are  smooth  or  polished  at  the  ends,  as  though 
used  as  knives  or  scrapers ;  but  most  of  them  have  no  marks  ex- 


Bunts  and  Scrapers. 


667 


cept  such  as  would  result  from  being  struck  or  shot  against  some 
hard  substance  —  even  this  being  absent  in  many. 


SCRAPERS. 


The  same  remarks  as  to  form  and  method  of  making  apply 
to  stemmed  scrapers  as  to  blunt  arrows,  except  that  the  chipping 
of  the  end  is  always  from  one  face  so  as  to  produce  a  chisel  edge. 
This  edge  is  frequently  smooth  or  polished  from  use.    Thev  would 


Figure  264  —  Blunt  Arrow  Heads,   or  Bunts,   and  Scrapers^ 

answer  very  well  for  smoothing  down  articles  made  of  wood, 
or  for  cleaning  hides  in  tanning;  they  would  also  serve  excel- 
lently for  removing  scales  from  fish,  and  as  they  are  usually 
abundant  in  the  vicinity  of  good  fishing  places,  they  were  no 
doubt  employed  for  this  purpose. 

Bunts  and  scrapers  are  illustrated  in  figure  264. 

A  few  quotations  regarding  the  use  and  mode  of  manufac- 
ture" of  stemless  scrapers  may  be  given. 

According  to  Evans,  they  are  made  by  laying  a  flake  flat 
side  up  on  a  stone,  and  chipping  off  around  the  edge  with  a 
hammer.    The  point  struck  must  rest  directly  on  the  under  stone„ 


668  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

and  but  a  thin  spall  is  struck  off  at  each  blow.  Leidy  observed 
that  the  Shoshoni  by  a  quick  blow  strike  off  a  segment  of  a  quartz 
bowlder  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  a  circular  or  oval  implement 
flat  on  one  side,  convex  on  the  other,  which  is  used  as  a  scraper 
in  dressing  buffalo  hides  (Hayden,  1872,  p.  653)  ;  the  Australians 
obtain,  in  exactly  the  same  way,  specimens  which  they  use  as 
axes  (Knight,  236).  Peale  remarks  that  while  hides  are  green 
they  are  stretched  on  the  ground  and  scraped  with  an  instrument 
resembling  an  adze  (Knight,  390)  ;  and  Dodge  says  more  ex- 
plicitly that  when  the  stretched  skin  has  become  hard  and 
dry,  the  woman  goes  to  work  on  it  with  an  adze-like  mstrument, 
with  a  short  handle  of  w^ood  or  elkhorn  tied  on  with  rawhide; 
holding  this  in  one  hand,  she  chips  at  the  hardened  skin,  cutting 
off  a  thin  shaving  at  every  blow. —  Dodge,  Indians,  256. 

The  scrapers  of  this  class  are  usually  chipped  over  the  entire 
surface  to  the  form  of  the  ordinary  celt,  except  that  the  scrap- 
ing edge  is  in  the  same  plane  with  one  face.  Some  have  a  scrap- 
ing edge  at  each  end.  In  a  few  the  flat  or  straight  face  is  chipped 
off  slightly,  bringing  the  edge  toward  the  middle  line;  but  this 
was  probably  done  after  the  implement  had  become  broken  or 
blunted  from  use.  When  there  is  any  polish,  it  is  always  on  the 
flat  face,  showing  use  as  an  adze,  or,  possibly,  as  a  plane.  They 
vary  much  in  width,  some  measuring  almost  the  same  in  either 
direction,  while  others  are  more  like  the  "chisel"  celts,  though 
the  position  of  the  cutting  edge  shows  their  use. 

CORES. 

The  generally  accepted  name  "cores"  is  applied  to  the  blocks 
from  which  are  struck  off  the  flakes  to  be  next  described.  A  few 
are  shown  in  figure  265. 

Dr.  Gillespie  says  of  these  objects: — 

"  They  have  been  generally  looked  on  as  the  blocks  left  after  flakes 
had  been  struck  off  for  use,  and  that  they  were  then  thrown  aside  as 
refuse,  nobody  having  appeared  to  recognize  the  fact  that  they  are  all 
in  reality  implements  of  very  definite  construction.  The  chief  reasons  for 
calling  them  implements  are:  1st.  The  fact  that  they  follow  a  definite 
typical  arrangement.  2nd.  That  some  of  them  are  so  small  that  the  flakes 
struck  from  them  could  be  of  little  practical  use  as  working  tools.  3rd. 
That  the  number  of  cores  found  in  any  one  locality  are  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  number  of  flakes.  4th.  That  immense  numbers  of 
flakes  are  found  which  bear  no  marks  of  use,  and  which  may  properly 


Cores  and  Flakes. 

be  looked  on  as  waste.    5th.  That  almost  all  the  cores  found  do  bear 
undoubted  marks  of  use. 

"  One  of  the  most  typical  forms  is  generally  elongated,  and  some- 
times smoothly  rounded  off  at  one  end,  which  would  admit  of  its  bemg 
readily  held  in  the  hand,  and  used  probably  in  the  manner  of  a  plane. 


Figure  265  —  Cores. 

Some  of  these  have  been  refaced,  when  the  edge  was  lost,  by  fresh 
flakes  being  struck  ofif.  In  the  smaller  cores  the  chipping  at  the  edge  is 
much  finer,  as  if  they  had  been  used  as  planes  or  scrapers  for  workmg 
some  substance,  such  as  bone  or  horn,  which  requires  a  stronger  and 
thicker  edge  than  could  be  got  by  the  acute  angle  of  the  ordinary  flake. 
There  is  never  any  appearance  of  the  pointed  end  having  been  used.  A 
further  proof  of  intent  as  tools  is  found  in  a  plain  surface  as  a  base, 
from  which  the  sides  rise  at  angles  of  60°  to  80°."  -  Gillespie,  260,  con^ 
densed. 


670  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

So  far  as  Ohio  cores  are  involved,  this  whole  argument  pre- 
sents a  most  ingenious  warping  of  facts.  Taking  his  points  in 
their  order,  ist — The  ''arrangement"  naturally  results  from  the 
plan  of  work  necessary  to  obtain  flakes  of  the  usual  form.  2nd — 
They  are  of  various  sizes,  from  one  just  reduced  to  proper  shape 
to  one  which  can  no  longer  be  conveniently  flaked.  3rd  —  The 
great  number  in  one  place  is  evidence  that  they  are  not  tools; 
otherwise  they  would  be  of  wide  distribution,  -as  are  other  imple- 
ments. 4th — The  flakes  are  ready  for  use  when  struck  off  and 
few  are  designed  for  purposes  which  would  leave  marks  on  them. 
5th — On  a  hundred  cores  chosen  at  random  not  five  will  have 
the  least  "mark  of  use."  The  ''finer  chipping  at  the  edge"  is 
produced  by  ineffective  effort  to  ^et  a  flake,  and  the  "angle  of 
60°  to  80°  from  a  plain  surface"  follows  as  a  result  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  stone  is  struck. 

Nearly  all  the  cores  found  in  Ohio  were  made  at  Flint  Ridge. 
Thousands  of  them  have  been  collected  at  that  place.  All  are 
small,  few  being  of  a  size  to  furnish  flakes  over  three  inches  long. 
Usually  all  the  flakes  were  obtained  from  only  one  side  of  the  core 
until  it  became  too  small  to  work.  Occasionally  they  were 
chipped  from  the  opposite  sides,  leaving  the  core  of  a  conical  or 
roughly  cylindrical  shape. 

The  flakes  were  undoubtedly  struck  off  by  means  of  stone 
hammers,  hundreds  of  which  are  to  be  found  about  the  quarries ; 
or  removed  by  pressure,  many  showing  the  bulb  of  percussion, 
others  being  perfectly  smooth  on  the  flat  face. 

"  In  all  cases  where  a  splinter  of  flint  is  struck  off  by  a  blow,  there 
will  be  a  bulb  or  projection,  of  a  more  or  less  conical  form,  at  the  end 
where  the  blow  was  administered,  and  a  corresponding  hollow  in  the 
block  from  which  it  was  dislodged.  This  projection  is  usually  known  as 
the  bulb  of  percussion."  —  Evans,  274. 

FLAKES. 

The  use  to  which  flakes  could  be  put  has  caused  some  dis- 
cussion. 

Schoolcraft  says  that  the  Dakota  bleed  patients  by  scarify- 
ing with  these  flakes ;  or  sometimes  one  is  fixed  into  a  piece  of 
wood,  held  over  a  vein,  and  driven  in  as  far  as  the  wood  will  let 
it  go  (Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  253),  the  use  being  similar  to  that 
of  the  modern  fleam.     Harpoons  in  the  Kurile  islands  are  made 


Flakes. 


671 


oi  bone,  with  a  deep  groove  along  each  side;  in  these  grooves 
thin  and  sharp  flakes  are  fastened  with  gum  (Nilsson,  46). 
According  to  Evans,  similar  flakes  were  used  for  scraping,  just  as 
broken  glass  is  used  among  modern  woodworkers.  Flakes  have 
been  found  in  the  Swiss  lakes  in  wooden  handles  in  the  fashion 
of  Eskimo  knives ;  also  in  Australia  with  skin  wrapped  around 
one  end  to  protect  the  hand  (Evans,  256) . 

As  nearly  all  the  flakes  in  Ohio  are  the  product  of  Flint  Ridge 
cores,  it  follows  that  very  few  of  them  are  as  much  as  three 


Figure  266  —  Flakes. 


inches  long.  They  are  more  or  less  curved  from  end  to  end, 
with  the  concave  face  always  regular  and  smooth ;  but  this  is  due 
to  the  fine  even  grain  of  the  stone,  and  not  to  any  "polishing" 
as  stated  by  some  writers. — Nadaillac,  73. 

On  the  opposite  or  convex  face  are  three  or  four  facets 
caused. by  others  having  been  struck  off  above.  This  is  exhibited 
in  figure  266.  The  edges  are  as  keen  as  broken  glass,  and  the 
points  are  usually  quite  sharp.  In  a  great  many  the  points  have 
been  worked  off  by  fine,  secondary  chipping.  When  this  is  done 
it  is  always  at  the  end  which  was  struck  in  knocking  off  the  flake. 
In  some  cases  it  may  be  due  to  the  shattering  effects  of  the  blow ; 
but  in  many  specimens  the  evidence  is  plain  that  it  was  done 
afterward  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  sharper  point.  Some 
flakes  of  this  kind  have  notches  for  attachment  to  a  shaft,  proba- 


672  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

bly  for  arrows;  such  specimens,  however,  are  without  the  sec- 
ondary chipping,  and  the  notches  are  at  the  end  opposite  the  one 
struck. 

"  We  have  no  conclusive  evidence  as  to  the  purpose  to  which  such 
minute  flakes  were  appHed,  but  they  may  have  been  fashioned  into  drills 
or  scraping  or  boring  tools,  of  very  diminutive  size.  *  *  *  Numerous 
flakes,  however,  quite  as  minute,  with  their  edges  showing  evident  signs 
of  wear,  are  present  among  the  refuse  left  by  the  cave-dwellers  of  the 
Reindeer  period  of  Southern  France.  These  minute  flakes  have  also  been 
found  in  Egypt  and  in  Asia,  as  well  as  in  Britain.  There  is  a  class 
of  ancient  Scandinavian  harpoon  heads,  the  stems  of  which  are  formed 
of  bone  with  small  flint  flakes  cemented  into  a  groove  on  either  side  so 
as  to  form  barbs.  Among  the  Australians  we  find  very  minute  splinters 
of  flint  and  quartz  secured  to  wooden  handles  by  'black  boy'  gum,  and 
forming  the  teeth  of  rude  saws  and  the  barbs  of  javelins."  —  Evans,  276-7. 

The  Mexicans  used  obsidian  flakes  as  razors.  Most  flakes, 
as  struck  oflf,  have  points  sufficiently  strong  for  use  as  arrows 
or  spears,  or  edges  sharp  enough  to  be  used  as  knives,  without 
further  work.  It  would  be  folly  to  rework  or  sharpen  such,  when 
a  new  instrument  could  be  made  from  a  core  with  a  single  blow. 

CEREMONIAL    FLINTS. 

Large,  carefully  wrought  objects  of  stone,  which  seem  too 
heavy  or  too  delicate  for  practical  use,  were  probably  intended 
only  for  display  or  to  have  a  place  in  some  ceremony. 

The  Yuroks  have  "  large  jasper  or  obsidian  knives  which  they 
used  to  make  and  use,  but-  which  nowadays  are  kept  only  as  ornaments 
or  objects  of  wealth,  to  be  produced  on  occasions  of  a  great  dance.  [They 
have]  some  very  large  jasper  spear-heads  four  inches  long  and  two  inches 
wide;  but  these  also  are  now  brought  forth  only  at  a  dance,  to  give  the 
owner  distinction."  —  Powers,  52. 

"  The  Hupa  have  articles  paraded  and  worn  in  ceremonial  dances, 
which  they  will  on  no  account  part  with  to  an  American.  One  of  these 
is  the  flake  or  knife  of  obsidian  or  jasper.  I  have  seen  several  which  were 
fifteen  inches  or  more  in  length  and  about  two  and  a  half  inches  wide 
in  the  widest  part.  Pieces  as  large  as  these  are  carried  aloft  in  the 
hand  in  the  dance,  wrapped  in  skin  or  cloth  to  prevent  the  rough  edges 
from  lacerating  the  hand,  but  the  smaller  ones  are  mounted  on  wooden 
handles  and  glued  fast.  The  largest  ones  cannot  be  purchased  by  a  white 
man  at  any  price.  These  are  not  properly  'knives,'  but  jewelry  for  sacred 
purposes,  passing  current  also  as  money."  —  Powers,  79,  condensed. 


Serrated  and  Beveled  Flints.  673 


SERRATION. 

The  serrated  or  serpentine  edges  on  worked  flints,  which  are  supposed 
to  require  a  great  deal  of  skill  in  their  production,  are  simply  the 
natural  result  of  a  particular  mode  of  chipping.  They  are  only  incidental 
to  the  process  of  manufacture,  and  are  allowed  to  remain  either  from 
choice  or  from  indifference.  Less  skill  and  less  work  are  required  to  give 
a  flint  an  edge  of  this  character  than  to  make  a  smooth,  sharp  margin. — 
Sellers,  Chipping. 

The  only  difference  between  these  and  others  of  the  same 
general  pattern  is  that  wider  spaces  were  left  between  the  points 
at  which  the  flaking  tool  was  applied  along  the  edge. 

BEVELING. 

In  speaking  of  the  beveled  edges  seen  on  so  many  flints, 
Jones  says: 

"  The  object  of  this  arrangement  was  to  cause  the  arrow,  In  its 
flight,  to  take  a  rotary  motion,  thereby  increasing  the  violence  of  the 
wound  when  the  barb  had  entered  the  flesh.  The  same  effect  was  accom- 
plished by  using  the  half  twist  in  feathering  the  shaft.  By  such  mount- 
ings the  flight  of  the  arrow  was  rendered  more  steady."  —  Jones,  255, 

Morgan  expresses  the  same  idea  in  the  statement  that 

"  occasionally  [arrow-heads]  are  found  with  a  twist  to  make  the 
arrow  revolve  in  its  flight.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Indian  always 
feathered  his  arrow  for  the  same  purpose."  —  Iroquois,  358. 

It  will  be  observed  that  both  these  authors  also  attribute 
the  rotary  motion  to  the  feathering  upon  the  rear  of  the  shaft. 
Others  claim  that  the  feathers  alone  exert  any  influence  of  this 
kind. 

"  An  arrow  is  not  directed  or  held  to  its  course  by  its  point,  but 
by  the  feather  at  the  butt  end  of  its  shaft;  and  if  a  rotary  motion  was 
required  it  would  naturally  be  given  by  placing  the  feathers  spirally 
around  the  shaft."  —  Sellers,  Chipping,  884. 

"  The  base  of  the  shaft  is  feathered  with  three  half  feathers,  bound 
on  with  sinews  and  twisted  so  as  to  give  the  arrow  a  rotary  motion."  — 
Coville,  360. 

Schoolcraft   (History,  I,    213),    Powers    (page    52),    and 
Cheever  (page  140),  also  say  that  the  modern  Indians  sometimes 
have  a  spiral  arrangement  of  the  feathers  on  their  arrow  to  pro- 
duce a  rotary  motion. 
43 


674  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  object  of  this  rotation  is  to  prevent  any  deviation  from 
a  direct  hne,  which  may  arise  from  a  lack  of  balance  between 
different  parts  of  the  missile.  Vanes  of  feathers  placed  spirally 
on  the  end  of  an  arrow  shaft  accomplish  this  result.  There  may 
be  either  two  or  three  strips;  occasionally  there  is  none,  the 
weight  of  the  point  being  sufficient  to  hold  it  in  a  practically 
straight  line,  at  least  for  a  moderate  range.  The  principle  is  the 
same  as  that  involved  in  the  rifling  of  modern  guns. 

Wilson  attached  beveled  points  of  various  sizes  to  smooth,  straight 
shafts,  took  them  to  a  considerable  elevation,  and  let  them  fall  point 
first;  he  also  launched  them  in  every  direction.  He  found  "a  universal 
rotation."  He  attached  others  to  a  wire  frame  which  left  them  free  to 
move  on  the  longer  axis;  on  placing  them,  point  first,  in  front  of  a 
blower  or  "  driving  fan  "  in  a  machine  shop,  the  current  of  air  set  every 
one  revolving.  He  holds  it  "  to  be  conclusive  that,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  intention  of  the  maker  of  the  arrow-heads,  the  fact  was,  that 
in  their  flight  through  the  air  the  beveled  edges  produced  a  rotary  motion." 
-  Bevel,  142. 

Whether  the  rotation  due  to  impact  of  air  upon  so  narrow 
a  surface  as  the  edge  of  a  flint  would  be  sufficiently  rapid  to  hold 
it  to  a  straight  course,  has  not  been  determined.  At  any  rate, 
the  weapon  could  not  ''tear  and  mangle  the  flesh  of  the  victim"  or 
•even  "increase  the  violence  of  the  wound,"  since  a  rotary  motion, 
however  produced,  must  cease  as  soon  as  the  point  pierces  the 
skin  of  either  man  or  beast;  the  force  which  the  weapon  could 
exert  in  this  manner  would  be  inappreciable  when  compared  with 
that  necessary  to  lacerate  flesh  and  muscle  almost  as  tenacious 
as  soft  rubber. 

A  better  explanation  of  their  peculiar  form,  and  a  hint  at 
the  sort  of  work  for  which  they  were  intended,  are  offered  by 
Sellers. 

"  It  has  been  urged  that  the  bevel-points  were  reamers  and  the 
uniform  direction  of  the  bevel  proved  that  they  had  been  turned  from 
right  to  left ;  this  is  considered  proof  "  that  the  people  who  used  them 
belonged  to  a  left-handed  race.  [But]  the  direction  and  uniformity 
in  the  bevels  is  to  me  evidence  of  exactly  the  reverse.  The  bevel  edge 
is  the  result  of  direct  downward  pressure  on  a  flake  lying  flat  on  a 
support  with  a  tool  held  in  the  right  hand.  All  I  have  found  have  been 
among  the  waste  where  the  users  lived,  *  *  *  associated  with  broken 
bones,  etc.,  never  scattered  as  if  lost  in  hunting.  *  *  *  One  peculiarity 
of  the  bevel-point  is  its  strong,  massive  shank  to  secure  it  to  a  shaft 
'.or  handle."  —  Sellers:  Chipping,  884. 


Beveled  Flints. 


675 


He  might  have  added  that  fully  ninety  per  cent  of  the  beveled 
flints  are  entirely  too  large  for  arrow-heads ;  they  may  have  served 
for  spear-heads,  but  their  size  and  the  strong  stems  would  indicate 
that  most  of  them  were  knives  used  for  skinning  game,  and  other 
domestic  work.  When  properly  shafted  and  held  in  the  right  hand, 
it  will  be  seen  that  almost  invariably  the  bevel  is  downward  and 
to  the  left,  bringing  the  chisel-like  edge  in  the  correct  position 
for  loosening  the  hide  of  an  animal ;  for  which  this  form  is  bet- 
ter adapted  than  any  other  that  can  be  given  to  flint,  as  it  will 
stand  rough  usage,  and  can  readily  be  forced  between  the  flesh 
and  the  pelt  without  danger  of  cutting  either. 

Besides  the  method  described  by  Sellers  bevel  edges  could 


Figure  267. 


Figure   268. 
Methods  of  Hafting  Knives  and  Arrow  Heads. 

be  quickly  put  on  flint  implements  by  means  of  a  bone  tool,  with 
a  notch  cut  in  the  side  similar  to  that  with  which  a  glazier  breaks 
glass.  If  the  edge  of  a  flint  spall  be  placed  in  this  notch  and  the 
tool  used  as  a  lever,  small  chips,  reaching  from  one  face  to  the 
other  will  be  detached,  thus  giving  the  typical  ''bevel."  The 
size  of  the  chips  and  the  angle  of  the  bevel  will  depend  somewhat 
upon  the  width  of  the  notch  and  the  depth  to  which  it  is  cut. 


The  method  of  mounting  flint  implements  in  handles  or 
shafts,  is  shown  in  figure  267  (Hoffman,  283),  which  is  a  stone 
knife  from  the  Utes;  and  in  figure  268  (Hoffman,  284),  an 
Apache  stone  point. 


676  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

The  object  of  notching  the  base  of  an  arrow-head,  may  be 
to  secure  a  method  of  firmly  attaching  it  to  a  shaft  without  the 
necessity  of  deeply  notching  the  latter. 

SOME   ODD    SUGGESTIONS. 
The  theory  has  been  advocated  that 

All  blades  with  a  leaf-shaped  outline  and  a  rough  protuberance  or 
"  hump  "  on  one  face  (the  other  face  being  flat)  are  so  made  intentionally, 
to  be  used  as  cutting  instruments.  They  are  to  be  held  in  the  hand,  and 
the  "  hump  "  is  to  afford  a  resting  place  for  the  thumb  in  order  to  give 
a  firm  hold.  "  No  reason  is,  or,  I  take  it,  can  be  given  why  the  work- 
man, having  gotten  his  impl«nent  into  its  present  hump-backed  condition, 
should  not  have  continued  his  work  by  striking  off  the  hump  if  he  desired 
it  stricken  off."  —  Wilson,  951. 

The  only  reason,  or  at  least  a  sufficient  reason,  for  not 
"striking  ofif  the  hump"  is,  that  it  will  not  come  off.  The  splin« 
tered  condition  of  so  many  of  these  specimens  is  evidence  that 
numerous  efforts  were  made  in  this  direction,  without  success. 
It  is  true  that  one  edge  of  some  of  them — not  all,  nor  even  a 
majority — is  sharpened  for  use  as  a  knife;  but  so  far  from  prov- 
ing that  such  end  was  in  view  from  the  start,  this  merely  indicates 
that  being  balked  in  completing  a  leaf-shaped  blank,  by  reason 
of  a  fractious  grain  in  the  stone,  the  chipper  made  the  best  of  a 
bad  bargain  and  finished  into  knives  such  pieces  as  would  be 
fit  for  that  purpose.  Most  *1iump-backed"  flints  do  not  show 
the  secondary  chipping  necessary  for  this  process ;  and  many  are 
too  small  to  hold  in  the  hand  unless  they  are  mounted  in  some 
sort  of  a  handle — in  which  case  the  ''hump"  would  be  not  only 
useless  but  a  decided  disadvantage;  besides  which,  the  supposi- 
tion of  a  handle  upsets  the  whole  argument  in  favor  of  the  "in- 
tentional hump." 

As  the  natural  fracture  of  flint  is  conchoidal,  it  is  frequently 
difficult  to  reduce  a  spall  or  flake  to  a  symmetrical  form.  For 
some  purposes  implements  made  from  such  pieces  with  no  more 
alteration  than  will  suffice  to  give  a  keen  edge  or  point,  or  permit 
secure  attachment  to  a  handle,  are  quite  as  serviceable  as  speci- 
mens requiring  more  time  and  skill  in  chipping.  Consequently 
many  such  are  found.    But  some  writers,  not  satisfied  with  any- 


Some  Sin^tdar  Theories.  677 


"^s 


thing  short  of  the  marvelous,  have  decided  that  great  ingenuity 
has  been  exercised  to  produce  this  form  with  mathematical  ac- 
curacy, to  make  heads  for  arrows  or  fish-spears.  In  the  former 
case,  according  to  these  expositors,  if  the  arrow  leaves  the  bow 
with  the  convex  side  of  the  "curved''  or  "twisted"  head  down- 
ward, the  upward  tendency  due  to  resistance  of  the  air  will  coun- 
teract the  influence  of  the  earth's  attraction;  thus  causing  the 
projectile  to  follow  a  horizontal  line  until  its  impetus  is  ex- 
hausted. The  idea  seems  to  be  that  an  object  of  this  form  will 
slide  through  the  air  somewhat  as  a  flat  stone  will  "skip"  over 
water. 

By  the  same  process  of  reasoning,  larger  implements  of 
this  class  are  shown  to  be  intended  for  spearing  fish.  It  is  well 
known  that  an  object  immersed  in  water  seems,  viewed  obliquely 
from  above,  to  be  higher  than  its  actual  position.  A  common 
spear  cast  directly  at  the  place  where  a  fish  appears  to  be  swim- 
ming, will  pass  over  it;  but  one  provided  with  a  twisted  head 
will,  according  to  these  authors,  be  so  deflected  as  to  pierce  it. 
Why  the  spearman  does  not  aim  at  the  proper  spot  in  the  first 
place,  is  not  explained;  perhaps  because  the  fish  could  dodge 
anything  coming  in  a  straight  line  towards  it,  but  is  not  able 
to  calculate  "curves." 

Such  theories  as  these — and  they  are  numbered  by  the  score 
— are  on  a  par  with  that  advanced  by  some  writers  who  main- 
tain that  head  flattening  is  practiced  by  western  Indians  in  or- 
der that  they  may  peep  over  logs  and  from  behind  trees  without 
exposing  their  craniums  as  a  target  for  an  enemy. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


OTHER  MANUFACTURED  ARTICLES. 

BONE. 

IT  is  a  well-settled  fact  that  most  Indians  depended  largely 
upon  agriculture  for  subsistence;  consequently  some  method 
of  cultivation  was  necessary.  It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that 
"cultivation"  implies  all  that  is  now  meant  by  the  term ;  the  Indian 
seems  merely  to  have  worked  the  hill  m  which  his  corn  was 
planted  and  not  the  whole  surface  of  the  field,  a  shallow  hole 
being  scooped  out  in  which  the  grain  was  dropped,  and  as  the 
stalk  became  larger  the  dirt  was  heaped  up  around  it. 

Among  the  Iroquois  "  the  same  hill  was  used  for  planting,  during. 
a  succession  of  years.  Thus  the  corn  hill  became  large  and  distinct, 
and  in  fact  a  hillock."  —  Schoolcraft,  History,  57. 

The  remains  of  many  "Indian  old  fields"  in  various  parts  of 
the  country  show  this  to  have  been  a  common  method,  there  being 
no  long  ridges  as  in  cornfields  of  the  present  day,  but  only  a  great 
number  of  these  detached  hills.  The  scarcity  of  implements  suit- 
able for  such  work  argues  nothing,  for  in  most  parts  of  the  coun- 
try stone  easily  worked  and  adapted  to  the  purpose  is  unobtain- 
able. Recourse  must  be  had,  therefore,  to  wood,  the  shoulder 
blades  of  large  animals,  tortoise  shells,  and  mussel  shells  per- 
forated for  attachment  to  a  handle.  The  last  are  frequently 
found,  but  the  other  materials  have  almost  entirely  disappeared, 
as  they  readily  succumb  to  decay. 

Connecticut  Indians  used  spades  rudely  constructed  of  wood,  or  of  a 
large  shell  fastened  to  a  wooden  handle  (De  Forest,  5)  ;  and  Palmer  (271) 
figures  a  hoe  made  of  horn,  14  by  5  by  one-fourth  inches,  in  a  wooden 
handle  5  feet  long,  which  is  split  and  slipped  over  the  smaller  end;  such, 
with  others  of  wood  and  stone,  were  used  among  the  Utah  Indians  before 
iron  was  introduced. 

"  The  Mandans  raise  a  great  deal  of  corn  and  some  pumpkins  and 
squashes.  This  is  all  done  by  the  women  who  make  their  hoes  of  the- 
shoulder-blade  of  the  buffalo  or  elk."  —  Catlin,  Indians,  I,  121. 

(678) 


Bone  Implements.  679 

Among  the  Omahas  "The  only  implement  of  husbandry  is  the  hoe; 
if  they  have  not  an  iron  one,  they  substitute  the  scapula  of  a  bison, 
attached  to  a  stick  in  such  a  manner  as  to  present  the  same  form."  — 
Long,  Rockies,  290. 

Bone  (including  horn  and  teeth  in  the  term)  was  abundantly 
utilized  for  many  purposes.  We  find  arrow-heads;  perforators, 
of  many  sizes,  for  use  as  needles  and  awls;  fish-hooks;  hide- 
scrapers;  and  various  forms  of  ornaments. 

In  finishing  a  hide  the  squaws  use  "  the  shoulder-blade  or  other 
large  bone  of  the  animal  [buffalo  or  elk],  sharpened  at  the  edge  some- 
what like  an  adze;  with  the  edge  of  which  they  scrape  the  fleshy  side  of 
the  skin,  bearing  on  it  with  the  weight  of  their  bodies."  —  Catlin,  In- 
dians, I,  45. 

"All  the  wood  being  cut  [by  the  Shoshones]  with  the  flint  or  elk- 
horn,  the  latter  of  which  is  always  used  as  a  wedge  in  splitting  wood."  — 
L.  &  C,  I,  427. 

Some  of  the  numerous  forms  of  these  articles  are  repre- 
sented in  the  accompanying  figures. 

The  scrapers  shown  in  figure  269  are  for  removing  the  fat 
and  hair  from  skins,  which  are  laid  on  a  log  or  other  rounded 
surface  so  that  the  concave  side  of  the  implement  can  be  con- 
veniently applied. 

Some  bone  arrow-heads  are  represented  in  figure  270. 

In  figures  271  and  272  various  forms  of  perforating,  weav- 
ing, and  sewing  tools  are  portrayed. 

The  methods  of  making  fish-hooks  are  represented  in  figure 
273,  which  shows  the  different  forms  as  well  as  the  various  stages 
from  the  fiat  bone  "blank"  to  the  completed  hook. 

The  peculiar  form  of  many  teeth,  which  have  the  roots 
ground  or  rubbed  ofT,  was  not  understood  until  the  discovery, 
recently,  in  mounds  and  village-sites  of  jaw-bones  whose  lower 
surface  was  cut  away,  only  enough  being  left  sometimes  to 
retain  the  teeth  in  place,  as  illustrated  in  figure  274.  Not  only 
animal  but  human  jaws  as  well  were  thus  treated.  Among  the 
ornaments  found  in  the  Hopewell  mounds  were  a  few  made  of 
human  jaw-bones,  both  upper  and  lower  (Moorehead,  226).  In 
fact,  all  the  larger  bones  of  the  human  frame,  skull,  humerus, 
femur,  ribs^  etc.,  have  been  found  carved  and  etched  in  a  great 
many  patterns. 


680 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  270  —  Bone  Arrow  Heads. 


Bone  Implements. 


681 


m^^^^^^^mm^ 


Figure  271. 
Piercing,  Weaving,  and  Sewing   Tools  of  Bone. 


688  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  272. 
Piercing,  Weaving,  and  Sewing  Tools  of  Bone. 


Bone  Implements. 


Figure  273  -  Evolution  of  Fish-hooks   from   Flat  Bone. 


684  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


>i*      .,.  SHELL. 

Wrought  shell,  in  any  form  except  beads  and  perforated 
valves  of  mussels,  is  comparatively  scarce  in  Ohio.  But  over  the 
entire  country 

"  From  a  very  early  date  shells  rnust  have  been  employed  quite 
extensively  by  the  ancient  Americans  as  implements,  as  weapons  for  war 
and  the  chase,  as  appliances  for  fishing,  as  agricultural  implements,  and 
as  knives,  gouges,  scrapers,  perforators,  etc.,  in  a  variety  cf  arts."  "Shells 
artificially  shaped  and  sharpened  were  also  sometimes  used  for  shaping 
objects  in  wood  and  clay,  in  preparing  food,  in  dressing  game,  and  in 
human  butchery."     "  According  to  Sproat,  shell  knives  were  used  by  the 


'  Figure  274  —  Human  and  Animal  Jaws,  cut  into  Ornaments. 

Indians  of  Vancouver's  Island,  in  carving  the  curious  wooden  images 
placed  over  graves."  "  The  same  Indians,  like  those  of  New  England, 
used  shells  as  adzes  in  clearing  out  the  interior  of  canoes. —  Holmes, 
Shell,  201-205. 

"  An  other  work  [of  the  Indian  women]  is  their  planting  of  corne, 
*  *  *  keeping  it  so  clean  with  their  clamme  shell-hooes,  as  if  it  were 
a  garden  rather  than  a  corne-field."  —  "  New  England  Prospect;"  quoted 
by  Schoolcraft,  399. 

In  a  large  mound  near  Charleston,  West  Virginia,  "Many  stone 
implements  [mostly  broken]  were  scattered  through  the  hard  upper  layer; 
also  a  number  of  single  valves  of  mussels  which  had  been  used  as  digging 
tools  until  they  were  worn  from  the  outside  entirely  through."  These  had 
been  taken  up  with  the  earth  used  in  building  the  mound,  and  had  no 
significance  whatever.  The  shells  may  have  been  used  in  digging  or 
loosening  the  earth  composing  the  mound.  —  B.  E.  12,  429. 


Shell  Utensils  and  Ornaments. 


685 


Figure  275  (B.  E.  2,  Plate  XXVI,  3)  represents  a  mussel 
shell  hoe,  which  came  from  a  mound  at  Madisonville.  Clam 
shells,  probably  like  this,  were  used  in  cultivating  the  soil,  by 
the  Virginia  and  New  England  Indians.  Figure  276  (B.  E.  2, 
Plate  XXVII,  i)  shows  a  similar  implement  in  which  the  edge 
instead  of  the  end  was  placed  opposite  the  handle.— Holmes, 
Shell,  208. 


Figure  275  — Hoe,   made   of  a   Mussel   Shell. 


"Dr.  Drake,  writing  of  the  Cincinnati  mounds,  mentions  'several 
large  marine  shells,  *  *  *  cut  in  such  a  way  as  to  serve  for  domestic 
utensils.'"  —  Holmes,  Shell,  197. 

Figure  277  (B.  E.,  2,  Plate  XXIV,  No.  4),  shows  a  shell 
spoon  found  at  IMadisonville  by  Dr.  Metz. 

Among  the  Choctaws  "  both  sexes  pluck  all  the  hair  off  their  bodies 
with  a  kind  of  tweezers,  made  formerly  of  clam  shells."  —  Adair,  6. 

The  Virginia  Indians  "pull  their  Beards  up  by  the  Roots  with 
Muscle-shells,  and  both  Men  and  Women  do  the  same  by  the  other  parts 
of  their  Body  for  Cleanliness  sake."  —  Beverly,   140. 

Strachey  and  Heckwelder  both  say  the  shells  were^used  for. 
cutting  hair.    Smith  uses  a  more  appropriate  word  than  "cutting." 

"With  two  shells  will  grate  away  the  hayre,  of  any  fashion  they 
please."  —  Smith,  129. 


686 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Various  patterns  of  shell  beads,  disks,  and  engraved  tablets,  were 
constantly  worn  by  the  Indians  of  Virginia. —  Beverly,  196. 

All  these  forms  are  found  in  abundance  in  the  mounds  and 
graves  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  in  connection  with  stone  objects 
common  in  the  mounds  of  Ohio;  and  the  shell  objects,  in  limited 
numbers,  are,  in  their  turn,  found  in  the  western  tumuli. 


Figure  276  — Hoe,  or  Scraper,  made  of  a  Mussel  Shell. 


Figure  277  —  Spoon,   made  of  a  Mussel  Shell. 

The  object  shown  in  figure  278  (B.  E.,  2,  plate  L,  6),  "is  made  from 
the  body  of  a  large  Busycon  perversum,  and  is  nine  and  a  half  inches 
long  by  three  inches  in  width  at  the  widest  part.  *  *  *  It  was  found 
associated  with  human  remains  in  a  mound  at  Sharpsburg,  Mercer  county, 
Ohio.  Another,  quite  similar,  was  found  on  the  head  of  a  sitting  skel- 
eton near  the  center  of  a  mound  in  Hardin  county."  The  character  of 
wearing  around  the  perforations  indicates  that  these  disks  were  firmly 
■attached,  concave  side  outward,  to  some  other  substance.  One  "  bears 
•evidence  of  considerable  use,  and  the  two  |ioles  are  much  worn  by  a 
string  or  cord,  which,  passing  from  one  hole  to  the  other  on  the  concave 
side  of  the  plate,  gradually  worked  a  deep  groove  between  them.       On 


Engraved  Shells. 


687 


the  back  or  convex  side,  the  perforations  show  no  evidence  of  wear."  — 
Hohnes,  Shell,  265-6. 

There  are  figured  and  described  three  engraved  shells  from  Tennes- 
see and  one  from  southeastern  Missouri,  with  human -forms  undoubtedly 
Mexican  in  character.  They  are  entirely  similar  in  design  to  the  copper 
plates  from  Illinois,  Georgia  and  Ohio.  But  the  shell  gorgets  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  in  use  among  the  Aztecs,  and  in  all  other  respects 
except  the  designs,  these  specimens  are  "identical  with  the  well-known 
work  of  the  mound-builders."  "  As  an  ornament  this  ^Missouri  gorget  [and 
the  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  Tennessee  gorgets  and  the  copper  plates] 
is  a  member  of  a  great  family  that  is  peculiarly  northern,  but  the  design 
engraved  upon  it  affiliates  with  the  art  of  Mexico,  and  so  close  and 
striking  are  the  resemblances,  that  accident  cannot  account  for  them, 
and  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  the  offspring  of  the 
same  beliefs  and  customs  and  the  same  culture  of  the  art  of  Mexico."  — 
Holmes,  Shell,  297  and  305. 


Figure   278— Shell    Gorget. 

But  the  correctness  of  this  conclusion  does  not  depend  upon 
the  theory  O'f  a  racial  or  tribal  connection  between  the  two  people. 
There  was  a  continual  interchang'e  of  art  products  all  over  North 
America,  and  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  supposition  that  the  artist 
himself  may  have  lived,  for  a  time  at  any  rate,  amc^ng  a  tribe 
with  whom  his  own  people  had  nothing  in  common.  (See  page 
49,  also  page  724.) 

On  some  of  these  shells  from  southern  States,  the  rattlesnake, 
highly  cc'nventionalized,  is  engraven.  Of  diiTerent  material  and 
finish,  but  apparently  belonging  to  the  same  stage  of  art  and  rep- 
resenting the  same  idea,  are  some  carvings  of  this  reptile,  from 
Ohio  mounds.  One  of  these,  shown  in  figure  279  (S.  &  D.,  276, 
figure  196),  is  thus  described: — 

"  From  mound  1  of  the  [Hopewell]  group,  were  taken  several  tablets, 
<of  one  of   which  the  figure  here  represented  is   a   copy.       It   represents 


688  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

a  coiled  rattlesnake ;  the  material  is  a  very  fine  cinnamon-colored  sandstone. 
The  original  is  six  and  a  quarter  inches  long.  It  is  impossible  to  re- 
store the  head,  which,  so  far  as  can  be  made  out,  has  some  peculiar  and 
interesting  features  —  plumes  or  ornamental  figures  surmounting  it.  An 
entire  tablet  was  obtained  from  this  mound  by  a  relic-hunter,  who  rep- 
resents it  to  have  been  carefully  and  closely  enveloped  in  sheets  of  cop- 
per, and  says  that  the  head  was  surmounted  by  'feathers!'  It  seems  that 
several  of  these  tablets  were  originally  deposited  in  the  mound;  the 
greater  portions  of  four  have  been  recovered,  but  none  displaying  the 
head  entire."  —  S.  &  D.,  276. 

From  the  central  shafts  of  conchs  and  other  large  shells, 
were  made  slender,  rod-like  ornaments  for  the  hair.  Sometimes 
these  had  a  knob  or  head  on  one  end.  From  the  whorls  were 
made  large  ornaments  to  be  attached  to  the  clothing  or  worn  at 
the  neck. 


Figure  279  —  Rattlesnake,  Carved  in  Stone.     Hopewell  Works. 

Circular  disks  with  holes  near  the  margin,  show  marks  of  wear  on 
both  sides,  sometimes,  as  if  suspended  by  a  cord  from  the  neck, — 
Holmes,  Shell,  276. 

Shell  beads,  or  ''wampum,''  seems  to  have  been  in  general  use 
as  money,  or  at  least  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  among  all  the  In- 
dians. They  were  formed  by  a  tedious  process  of  rubbing  down 
on  stones  and  drilling  with  a  flint  or  other  perforator.  In 
some  places,  after  the  settlement  by  the  whites,  the  English  tried 
to  make  it,  but  the  results  were  not  satisfactory.  The  Dutch  of 
New  York,  however,  adapted  a  lathe  to  its  manufacture  and  soon 
achieved  a  monopoly. 

Probably  as  a  display  of  wealth  and  as  an  emblem  of  power, 
the  small  shell  beads  were  worn  in  great  quantities  by  later 
Indians. 

King  Philip,  besides  a  coat  made  entirely  of  shell  beads,  had  two 
belts,  one  of  which  was  nine  inches  wide  and  reached  from  his  shoulders 
to  his  feet.  Probably  "  the  greatest  collection  ever  taken  from  a  pre- 
historic mound  could  not  compare  for  a  moment  with  the  treasure  of 
this  historic  chieftain."  —  Holmes,  Shell,  234. 


Wampum,  Shell  Beads,  and  Ornaments.  689 

They  sensed  also  as  tokens  of  promises  and  to  some  extent 
took  the  place  of  written  documents. 

"One  of  the  most  remarkable  customs  practiced  by  the  American 
Indians  is  found  in  the  mnemonic  use  of  wampum.  [This]  might  readily 
develop  from  the  practice  of  gift  giving  and  the  exchange  of  tokens  of 
friendship,  such  mementos  being  preserved  for  future  reference  as  re- 
minders of  promises  of  assistance  or  protection.  [Then  would  come] 
the  permanent  association  of  a  single  object  or  sign  with  a  particular 
idea.  The  wampum  records  of  the  Iroquois,  *  *  *  by  association 
simply,  were  made  to  record  history,  laws,  treaties,  and  speeches  —  a 
fact,  a  law,  a  stipulation,  or  a  declaration  being  'talked  into'  a  particular 
part  or  pattern  of  the  design  with  which  it  was  ever  after  associated. 
*  *  *  Such  records  were,  of  course,  quite  useless  without  the  agency 
of  an  interpreter."  —  Holmes,  Shell,  240. 

Two  "wampum  belts,"  one  of  them  partly  dissected  to  show 
the  manner  of  its  construction,  are  represented  in  figure  280  (B. 
E.  2,  Plate  XXXVIII). 

With  the  ^lound  Builders  they  probably  had  a  value  and 
signification  similar  to  that  pertaining  to  them  among  historic 
tribes ;  and  in  the  same  way,  they  seem  to  have  been  used  in  con- 
junction with  many  other  small  articles. 

"  The  number  of  beads  found  in  the  mounds  is  truly  surprising. 
They  may  be  counted  in  some  instances  in  hundreds  and  thousands  — 
each  one  the  product  of  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  labor,  unless  our 
estimate  of  the  means  and  facilities  at  the  command  of  the  makers  is 
greatly  underrated.  *  *  *  Some  of  these  beads  [are]  made  of  shell 
and  enveloped  in  metal.  *  *  *  Others  are  composed  of  shell,  worked 
into  ever>-  variety-  of  shape,  round,  oblong,  and  flattened;  others  still  of 
animal  bones  and  tusks,  and  many  of  pearls  and  small  marine  shells  — 
such  as  the  marginella,  natica,  oliva,  etc.  The  perforated  teeth  of  the 
wildcat,  wolf  and  shark,  as  well  as  the  claws  of  animals  and  sections 
of  the  small  bones  of  birds,  were  also  used  in  the  manner  of  beads,  either 
for  the  purpose  of  distinction  and  decoration,  or  as  amulets.  *  * 
In  all  these  we  observe  remarkable  coincidences  with  the  decoration  of 
the  existing  tribes  of  Indians,  who  are  extravagant  in  their  use  of  beads 
and  pendants."  —  S.  &  D.,  230-1. 

Most  beads  are  made  of  sea  shells,  either  the  smaller  varieties, 
entire;  or  the  larger  ones  cut  into  pieces  of  convenient  size  and 
worked  into  a  hundred  shapes  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  wear- 
er. Nearly  all  these,  however,  at  least  in  the  west,  are  small  per- 
forated disks.  Many  were  made  from  fresh-water  shells.  Bears' 
teeth  were'  favorite  ornaments ;  often  holes  are  drilled  in  them, 
in  which  are  set  pearls  or  the  teeth  of  small  animals. 
44 


690 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


BimSAU  09  BTflXOIX>G> 


AMIfUAL  BBFOBT  1881    ?U  XXXVQjt 


Figure  280. 
Belts    of   Wampum. 


Pottery  from  the  Mounds.  691 

POTTERY. 

In  the  days  of  Squier  and  Davis  little  was  known  of  the  fic- 
tile ware  of  southeast  Missouri  and  the  Pueblo  region.  Had  the 
opportunity  been  afforded  them  to  examine  specimens  such  as 
have  come  to-  light  within  the  past  twenty  years,  we  should  not 
have  found  in  their  volume  this  utterance : — 

"Among  the  mound-builders  the  art  of  pottery  attained  to  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  perfection.  Various  though  not  abundant  specimens 
of  their  skill  have  been  recovered,  which,  in  elegance  of  model,  delicacy 
and  finish,  as  also  in  fineness  of  material,  come  fully  up  to  the  best  Peru- 
vian specimens,  to  which  they  bear,  in  many  respects,  a  close  resemblance. 
They  far  exceed  anything  of  which  the  existing  tribes  of  Indians  are 
known  to  have  been  capable."  —  S.  &  D.,  188. 

With  very  rare  exceptions  the  pottery  exhumed  in  Ohio  is 
comparatively  rude  in  design  and  workmanship.  Neither  is  the 
quantity  at  all  what  we  should  expect  it  to  be,  in  view  of  the  vast 
number  of  other  articles,  and  the  evidence  o-f  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  people  having  occupied  the  State,  first  and  last,  especially 
in  the  valleys. 

Specimens  in  the  collection  of  the  Society  appear  in  figures 
281,  282,  and  283. 

Four  specimens  of  Ohio  Mound  Builders'  pottery  are  repro- 
duced here  from  Squier  and  Davis  in  figure  284  (S.  &  D.,  189, 
Plate  XLVI).  The  first  two,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  illustra- 
tions, are  thin,  delicately  executed,  and  symmetrical ;  but  as  both 
were  found  in  fragments,  it  is  uncertain  how  much  allowance  is 
to  be  made  for  the  "personal  equation"  of  the  artist.  The  other 
two  are  from  a  mound,  but  belong  to  intrusive  burials. 

The  specimens  shown  in  figure  285  (S.  &  D.,  192,  figure 
^2,  Nos.  I  and  2),  both  "clearly  of  modern  workmanship, 
were  found  a  few  feet  below  the  surface,  near  Hamilton,  *  * 
placed  beside  a  human  skeleton." —  S.  &  D.,  192. 

In  figure  286  (S.  &  D.,  194,  figures  76  and  yy),  are  pre- 
sented two  pipes  of  clay,  plowed  up  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 
Hocking  river,  among  earthworks. —  S.  &  D.,  194. 

The  object  shown  in  figure  219  (S.  &  D.,  194,  figure  79), 
which  is,  apparently,  the  handle  c-f  a  vessel,  broken  off,  was  "taken 
from  a  mound  in  Butler  county,  Ohio.  It  represents  the  head  of 
a  bird,  somewhat  resembling  the  toucan." —  S.  &  D.,  194. 


692 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure   281  —  Specimens   of   Ancient   Pottery. 


Pottery  from  the  Mounds. 


693 


Figure   282  —  Specimens   of   Ancient   Pottery. 


694 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  283. 


Figure  284  —  Specimens   of   Mound   Pottery. 


Pottery  from  the  Mounds, 


695 


Figure  285  — Ancient   Pottery. 


Figure  286  —  Clay  Pipes. 


696  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

This  is  the  "young  eagle"  of  Henshaw.     See  page  608. 


In  making  pottery,  mussel  shells  or  quartz  pebbles  were 
beaten  fine  and  either  one,  but  never  both  together,  mixed 
with  clay;  the  compound  was  thoroughly  kneaded,  molded  into 
form,  dried  in  the  open  air,  and  then  burned.  None  o-f  it  was 
glazed,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  was  painted. 

As  regards  the  methods  by  which  it  was  made  into  form, 
Foster  says  of  the  pottery  from  Gallatin  county,  Illinois :  — 

"  A  basket  of  rushes  or  willows  had  first  been  constructed  inside 
of  which  the  clay  was  moulded  and  allowed  to  dry  before  burning." 
Cites  Rau :  "  The  earthenware  has  evidently  been  moulded  in  baskets." 
Cites  Hunter :  "Another  method  practiced  is  to  coat  the  inner  surface 
of  baskets,  made  of  rushes  or  willows,  with  clay,  to  any  required  thickness, 
and  when  dried  to  burn  them."  —  Foster,  249. 

Ho'lmes  shows  these  statements  to  be  erroneous  unless  in 
a  few  exceptional  instances. 

"  It  has  been  supposed  that  vessels  of  clay  were  often  modeled  in 
baskets,  and  that  the  native  earthenware  preserved  numerous  impres- 
sions of  baskets.  On  closer  analysis  these  impressions  turn  out  to  be  the 
application  of  pliable  cloths,  or  of  cords  singly  or  in  groups,  or  of  stamps 
covered  with  textiles  or  having  geometric  textile-like  patterns  engraved 
on  them.  I  cannot  recall  a  single  example  from  eastern  United  States 
in  which  it  is  entirely  clear  that  the  clay  vessel  was  modeled  in  a  basket. 
The  impressions  of  basket  work  occasionally  seen  are  only  partial,  having 
been  applied  after  the  vessel  was  practically  finished."  —  Holmes:  Tex- 
tile Art,  38. 

Sellers  denies  the  possibilities  of  "keeping  in  form  and  lining  with 
heavy  clay  fragile  baskets  of  the  large  size  of  these  old  salt  kettles." 
^T  discovered  [in  southern  Illinois]  what  at  first  I  took  to  be  an  entire 
kettle  bottom  up ;  but  on  removing  the  earth  that  covered  it,  it  appeared 
to  be  a  solid  mass  of  sun-dried  clay.  *  *  *  j  became  satisfied  it 
was  a  mould  on  which  the  clay  kettles  had  been  formed."  He  also 
found  a  place  which  is  without  doubt  "the  center  of  a  great  pottery 
manufactory,"  in  which  were  many  of  these  moulds.  "  They  appeared 
to  have  been  small  mounds  built  of  stone,  and  covered  with  a  tenacious 
yellow  clay,  which,  by  sun-drying,  had  become  as  hard  as  common  sal- 
mon-brick." "  I  examined  carefully  quantities  of  specimens  of  pottery, 
and  found  the  markings  on  all  of  them  to  have  been  made  by  woven 
cloth  of  twisted  threads,  and  in  no  single  instance  by  rush  or  willow 
baskets.  *  *  *  j  (.^^  5^^  ^|^g  ^gg  Qf  ^  bandage  in  holding  the  moist 
clay  firmly  bound  while  being  raised  from  the  mould  on  which  it  was 
formed,  and  which  was  essential  to  prevent  cracking  as  it  hardened  or 


Cloth  Made  by  Mound  Builders.  697 

dried."  Some  pans  previously  unearthed  and  destroyed,  were  described 
by  an  eye-witness  as  "basins,  as  large  around  as  the  hind  wheel  of  his 
wagon,  with  flattish  bottoms."  These  large  vessels  were  used  to  evapo- 
rate water  in  making  salt. —  Sellers:  Pottery,  574. 

"  At  the  advent  of  the  whites,  the  natives  were  observed  to  build 
their  vessels  by  a  process  known  as  'coiling,'  and  by  modeling  over  gourds, 
and  over  blocks  of  wood  and  masses  of  indurated  clay  shaped  for  the 
purpose.*  *  *  Baskets  were  also  used  as  moulds  and  pliable  fabrics, 
such  as  nets  and  coarse  cloths,  were  employed  in  some  sections.  *  *  * 
The  material  employed  was  usually  a  fine-grained  clay,  tempered,  in  a 
great  majority  of  cases,  with  pulverized  shells.  *  *  *  Powdered 
potsherds  were  also  used.  *  *  *  Nothing  resembling  a  glaze  has  been 
found  on  pieces  known  to  be  ancient.  *  *  *  Generally,  however,  it 
was  more  or  less  carefully  polished  by  rubbing  *  *  *  and  in  very 
many  cases  a  thick  coating  of  ochre  was  applied."  —  Holmes,  Pottery,  372. 

Among  the  Mandans  "Earthen  dishes  or  bowls  *  *  *  are  man- 
ufactured *  *  *  in  great  quantities,  and  modeled  into  a  thousand 
forms  and  tastes.  They  are  made  by  the  hands  of  women,  from  a  tough 
black  clay,  and  baked  in  kilns  which  are  made  for  the  purpose."  — Cat- 
lin,   Indians,   I,   116. 

When  the  southern  Indians  made  pottery  "their  method  of  glazing 
is,  they  place  them  over  a  large  fire  of  smoky  pitch,  which  makes  them 
smooth,  black  and  firm."  —  Adair,  425. 

FABRIC. 

What  sort  of  work  the  prehistoric  people  may  have  done  in 
wood,  textile  fabrics,  feathers,  furs,  robes,  skins,  or  other  perish- 
able material,  can  never  be  known;  but  as  far  as  can  be  judged 
from  the  few  scraps  remaining  and  from  the  cloth  impressions 
on  pottery,  it  seems  to  have  been  on  a  par  with  that  of  the  present 
day  among  tribes  but  little  changed  from  their  condition  when 
first  known  to  the  whites. 

By  taking  impressions  in  modeling  clay  of  the  markings  on 
pottery,  Holmes  obtains  exact  reproductions  of  the  substances  by 
which  these  markings  were  produced.  In  this  manner  he  reveals 
fragments  of  cloth  woven  in  at  least  seven  diflferent  ways.  Five 
of  these  are  reproduced  in  figures  287  and  288  (B.  E.,  13,  pages 
38  and  44). 

"  The  degree  of  success  in  the  textile  art  is  not  necessarily  a  reliable 
index  of  the  culture  status  of  the  peoples  concerned,  as  progress  in  a  par- 
ticular art  depends  much  upon  the  encouragement  given  to  it  by  local 
features  of  environment.  The  tribe  that  had  good  clay  used  earthenware 
and  neglected  basketry,  and  the  community  well  supplied  with  skins 
of   animals   did   not   need   to   undertake   the   difficult   and   laborious   task 


698 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  287  —  Specimens  of  Weaving.    From  Impressions  on  Pottery. 


Cloth  Made  by  Mound  Builders. 


699 


Kavi 


Figure  288  —  Specimens  of  Weaving.     From  Impressions  on  Pottery. 

of  Spinning  fibers  and  weaving  garments  and  bedding.  Thus  it  appears 
that  well-advanced  peoples  may  have  produced  inferior  textiles  and 
that  backward  tribes  may  have  excelled  in  the  art."  —  Holmes:  Textile 
Art,  10. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  pottery  and  baskets. 

In  the  double  mound  described  on  page  376  were  many 
fragments  of  charred  cloth,  showing  at  least  three  distinct  styles 
of  weaving.     They  are   shown   in  figure  289,  by  the  courtesy 


700 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Figure  289  —  Cloth ,  Recovered  from  z  Mound. 


Mica. 


701 


of  the  owner,  Mr.  Clarence  B.  Moore.  A  fourth  variety 
is  a  slight  modification  of  one  of  tnese.  Another  fragment  from 
the  largest  mound  near  the  "Graded  Way"  at  Piketon  (see  page 
373)  is  shown  in  figure  290  (B.  E.,  13,  figure  10).  Mr.  Holmes 
says  this  is  *'the  finest  piece  of  work  that  has  come  to  my  notice." 
—  Holmes,  Textile  Art,  36. 

MICA. 

Mica  was  in  great  request  among  the  Mound  Builders.  Large 
plates,  blacked  on  one  side,  would  make  tolerable  substitutes  for 
mirrors ;  and  some  of  them  may  have  reflected  the  smirk  of  sat- 
isfaction on  the  gaudily  bedaubed  countenance  of  a  young  buck 
as  he  sallied  forth  on  a  career  of  conquest. 


Figure   290. 
A  fine  example  of  Mound  Builders'  weaving. 

Most  of  it,  however,  was  for  conversio-n  into  various  forms 
of  ornamental  appendages ;  and  the  extent  to  which  it  was  brought 
into  Ohio  may  be  judged  by  the  amount  found  in  single  mounds. 
The  deposit  at  Mound  City  is  described  on  page  352.  Still 
larger  was  the  cache,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  near  Newark,  where, 

in  removing  a  small  mound  while  constructing  the  canal,  fifteen  or 
twenty  bushels  of  it  were  thrown  out,  much  of  it  in  sheets  eight  to  ten 
inches  long,  by  four  or  five  inches  wide,  and  from  half  an  inch  to  an  inch 
thick.—  S.  &  D.,  72,  note. 

Large  quantities  were  sometimes  interred  with  a  single  indi- 
vidual. 

"  In  the  Grave  Creek  mound  were  found  with  one  of  the  skeletons, 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  bits  of  mica,  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches 
square,  each  perforated  with  two  or  more  small  holes.  *  *  *  In  a 
mound  *  *  *  near  Lower  Sandusky,  upwards  of  twenty  oval  plates 
of  mica  of  great  beauty  were  discovered,  each  perforated  with  a  small 
hole  at  one  end."  —  S.  &  D.,  241. 


702 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Crescents  (figure  291),  scrolls,  and  various  other  forms  are 
found.  The  holes  are  usually  punched,  as  if  with  a  coarse  needle 
or  small  awl.  A  bone  dressed  to  a  slender  point,  or  a  fragment  of 
copper  wire,  may  have  been  the  instrument;  or  a  sliver  of  flint 
would  answer  the  purpose. 

It  is  probable  that  nearly  all  of  the  mica  in  possession  of  the 
Mound  Builders  came  from  North  Carolina,  though  some  of  it 
may  be  derived  from  Virginia  where  evidences  of  prehistoric 
work  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  mica  district 


Figure   291. 
Parts  of  Mica   Crescent.     From  a   Mound  near  Chillicothe. 

"  For  about  thirty  years  several  companies  have  been  actively  en- 
gaged in  mica  mining  in  North  Carolina,  and  almost  the  entire  supply 
of  the  United  States  is  derived  from  this  locality;  yet  the  total  amount 
of  excavations  by  the  present  operators  is  scarcely  one-tenth  of  that 
performed  by  the  aborigines. 

"  The  mica  is  in  masses  in  the  dikes  or  veins  of  quartz  intersecting 
the  mountains;  the  prehistoric  miners  ascertained  this  fact  in  some  way, 
and  followed  the  veins,  carrying  some  of  their  trenches  to  a  depth  of 
forty  feet  or  even  more.  They  desired  only  large  pieces  of  the  best 
quality,  rejecting  much  that  is  commercially  valuable  at  the  present 
day.  Many  persons  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mines  make  moderately  good 
wages  by  working  over  the  ancient,  refuse  piles  and  selling  what  they 
may  find.  Quite  frequently  fragments  are  picked  up  which  have  been 
cut  into  scrolls  and  various  other  patterns  and  afterward,  for  some  reason, 


How  Mica  was  Quarried.  703 

thrown  away.  Quantities  of  small,  sharp  flakes  of  flint  occur  wherever  the 
work  of  trimming  or  assorting  seems  to  have  been  carried  on;  these  are 
not  dressed  in  any  manner,  the  cutting  being  done  with  the  natural 
edges  of  the  fragment.  Since  they  could  be  struck  from  a  flint  pebble 
or  block  at  a  single  blow,  it  is  probable  they  were  used  only  once  or 
twice;  as  soon  as  one  became  nicked  or  dulled,  it  would  be  cast  aside 
and  another  taken. —  Gill. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  North  Carolina  Geological  Sur- 
vey says : — 

"  This  industry  is  not  really  new  here,  it  is  only  revived.  The 
present  shafts  and  tunnels  are  continually  cutting  into  ancient  shafts  and 
tunnels ;  and  hundreds  of  the  spurs  and  ridges  of  the  mountains  all  over 
Mitchell  county  [especially]  are  found  to  be  honey-combed  with  ancient 
workings  of  great  extent,  of  which  no  one  knows  the  date  or  history.  A 
few  miles  southwest  of  Bakersville  I  found  open  pits  forty  to  fifty  feet  wide, 
hy  seventy-five  to  a  hundred  long,  filled  up  to  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  of  depth, 
disposed  along  the  sloping  crest  of  a  long  terminal  spur  or  ridge  of  a  neigh- 
boring mountain.  The  excavated  earth  was  piled  up  in  huge  heaps  about  the 
margins  of  the  pits,  and  the  whole  overgrown  with  the  heaviest  forest  trees, 
oak  and  chestnut,  some  of  them  three  feet  or  more  in  diameter,  and  some 
of  the  largest  belonging  to  a  former  generation  of  forest  growth,  fallen 
and  decayed;  facts  which  indicate  a  minimum  of  three  hundred  years. 
Subsequently  I  learned  that  the  mica  was  of  common  occurrence  in  the 
tumuli  of  the  Mound  Builders,  and  upon  further  inquiry  I  ascertained  that 
cut  forms,  similar  to  those  found  in  the  mounds  were  occasionally  dis- 
covered among  the  rubbish  and  refuse  heaps  about,  and  in  the  old  pits. 
These  circumstances  revealed  unmistakably  the  purpose  and  date  of  these 
works,  and  showed  them  to  be  contemporary  with  the  extensive  copper 
mining  operations  of  Lake  Superior.  Since  the  development  of  mica 
mining  on  a  large  scale  in  Mitchell  and  the  adjoining  counties,  it  has 
been  ascertained  that  there  are  hundreds  of  old  pits  and  connecting  tun- 
nels among  the  spurs  and  knobs  and  ridges  of  this  rugged  region ;  and 
there  remains  no  doubt  that  mining  was  carried  on  here  for  ages,  and 
in  a  very  systematic  and  skillful  way;  for  among  all  the  scores  of  mines 
recently  opened,  I  am  informed  that  scarcely  one  has  turned  out  profitably 
which  did  not  follow  the  old  workings,  and  strike  the  ledges  wrought  by 
those  ancient  miners.  The  pits  are  always  open  'diggings,'  never  regular 
shafts;  and  the  earth  and  debris  often  amounts  to  enormous  heaps. 

"One  of  the  most  profitable  of  all  the  modern  mines  [on  Cane 
Creek]  is  one  which  is  marked  by  the  greatest  of  the  old  excavations 
and  the  largest  earth  heaps  about  its  margins,  in  the  whole  region,  show- 
ing that  this  was  the  richest  of  the  ancient  diggings.  The  tunnels 
are  noted  as  being  much  smaller  than  such  workings  in  modern  mining, 
being  generally  only  three  to  three  and  a  half  feet  in  height  and  consid- 
erably less  in  width.  Some  of  these  tunnels  have  been  followed  for  fifty 
an4  a  hundred  feet  and  upwards.  It  is  asserted  by  the  miners  that  dis- 
tinct tool  marks  are  often  found  along  the  walls  of  these  tunnels,   re- 


704  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

sembling  the  stroke  of  a  pick  or  chisel.  It  is  also  noticed  that  the  best 
parts  of  the  veins  were  often  abandoned  by  the  old  workers,  evidently 
on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the  rock;  they  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
able  to  penetrate  the  unweathered  and  more  solid  portion  of  the  ledges 
in  any  case,  a  circumstance  which  shows  the  inferiority  of  their  tools."  — 
N.  C,  1875,  300. 

"  The  processes  of  [mica]  mining  *  *  *  appear  to  have  been 
much  the  same  as  in  the  quarrying  of  steatite,"  In  Mitchell  county,  North 
Carolina,  "numerous  quarrying  implements  resembling  those  used  in  the 
soapstone  quarries  were  found,  and  the  excavations  are  reported  to  be 
quite  as  extensive  as  in  any  other  class  of  aboriginal  quarries  in  the  east." 
—  Holmes,  Implements,  106. 

At  some  time  in  the  past,  white  men,  probably  the  Spanish 
or  French,  knew  of  the  existence  of  the  mineral  and  attempted 
to  work  the  veins. 

While  cleaning  out  an  old  shaft  in  Macon  county,  there  were  found 
at  depths  of  35  to  50  feet  below  the  surface,  a  rude  axe,  wedge,  and 
gudgeons  of  a  windlass  made  of  iron;  the  latter  are  the  irons  driven  into 
the  ends  of  a  wooden  axle,  for  raising  water,  etc. —  Simonds,  8. 

Had  this  work  been  done  by  English,  even  in  colonial  time,, 
it  is  probable  some  record  of  the  fact  would  have  been  preserved ; 
but  it  seems  the  present  knowledge  of  the  deposits  resulted  from 
a  curiosity  to  ascertain  the  purpose  for  which  the  ancient  excava- 
tions were  made. 

COPPER. 

Imperfect  and  vague  knowledge  concerning  the  use  of  this 
metal  amo-ng  the  Mound  Builders  is  responsible  for  two  wide 
departures  from  fact,  which  have  taken  a  prominent  place  in 
popular  misconceptions.    One  is  that 

"  In  point  of  workmanship  the  tools  of  the  modern  Indians  are 
always  inferior  to  the  copper  ones  of  the  mound-builders  and  the  ancient 
mine  workers."  —  Whittlesey,  Weapons,  477. 

If  by  "tools"  is  meant  stone  or  bone  implements,  a  comparison 
is  not  germane  between  materials  so  different  in  composition. 
If,  however,  the  term  refers  to  copper  knives,  spears,  hatchets,  and 
other  articles  subject  to  rough  usage,  implements  from  shallow 
modern  graves  in  the  north,  or  even  from  the  surface,  are  in 
some  cases,  better  adapted  for  their  intended  work  than  similar 
ones  from  mounds.  This  will  be  apparent  from  a  casual  inspec- 
tion of  collections  in  which  a  large  area  is  represented. 


"Hardened"  or  ''Tempered"  Copper.  705 

The  seco-nd  mistake  consists  in  a  belief  that  Mound  Builders 
were  acquainted  with  some  means,  at  present  a  ''lost  art,"  of 
hardening  copper  until  it  would  compare  favorably  with  high- 
grade  steel.  Not  infrequently  the  claim  is  advanced  that  even 
a  file  will  make  no  impression  upon  a  knife  or  hatchet  in  some 
collector's  private  cabinet.  It  is  only  necessary  to  apply  the  test, 
to  be  convinced  of  the  fallacy.  No  such  "secret"  wi^s  ever  known. 
Despite  all  assertions  to  the  contrary,  not  one  piece  of  unalloyed 
copper  has  ever  been  found,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  having  a 
greater  degree  of  hardness  than  can  be  produced  by  hammering. 
The  belief,  so  far  as  the  Mound  Builders  is  concerned,  probably 
had  its  origin  in  the  assertion  of  Squier  and  Davis,  that 

The  Peruvians  and  Mexicans  "possessed  the  secret  of  hardening 
[copper]  so  as  to  make  it  subserve  most  of  the  uses  to  v^hich  iron  is  ap- 
plied.    Of  it  they  made  axes,  chisels  and  knives."  —  S.  &  D.,  196. 

These  authors,  in  turn,  were  misled  by  statements  of  early 
Spanish  annalists,  among  them  Mendieta,  who  says  of  the  aborig- 
ines of  Mexico  and  Central  America : — 

"  It  is  all  the  more  inexplicable  that  they  should  have  only  used 
stone  implements,  that  copper  was  abundant,  and  that  they  knew  how 
to  temper  and  make  it  nearly  as  hard  as  steel."  —  Charnay,  69. 

The  argument  seems  to  proceed  about  in  this  way: — The 
Mound  Builders  had  an  abundance  of  copper.  They  are  descend- 
ed from  the  Aztecs.  The  latter  knew  how  to  temper  copper. 
Therefore,  the  Mound  Builders  practiced  the  art. 

Of  these  four  steps,  only  the  first  has  any  foundation. 

There  is  still  another  belief  which  seems  quite  unfounded, 
although  it  meets  with  the  approval  of  scientific  men  who  are  in 
position  to  determine  its  correctness.  This  is  to  the  effect  that 
while  Indians  —  or  aborigines  of  the  United  States  in  general  — 
were  able  to  fabricate  hatchets  and  such  comparatively  simple 
forms,  the  designing  and  execution  of  more  complicated  pieces 
was  entirely  beyond  their  capacity ;  and  that  for  the  origin  of  the 
latter  we  must  lock  to  European  sources.     (See  pages  719-724.) 

HOW   COPPER   WAS   OBTAINED  AND   WORKED. 

Before  touching  upon  this  part  O'f  the  subject,  however,  it 
will  be  in  order  to  give  a  brief  account  of  the  sources  of  raw 

45 


706  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

material  available  to  aborigines,  and  their  methods  of  mining  and 
working  it. 

"  So  many  evidences  of  prehistoric  intercourse  with  regions  to  the 
south  have  been  found  in  the  mounds  of  our  western  states  that  it  is 
safe  to  assume  that  the  Lake  Superior  district  furnished  the  greater 
part  of  the  copper  in  use  by  Southern  Irfdians,  which  was  doubtless  traded 
for  shell  implements  and  ornaments,  or  for  the  raw  material  obtainable 
only  on  the  seaboard  of  the  Gulf  Coast."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  238. 

In  the  same  article  Mr.  Moore  gives  a  list  of  all  known 
localities  whence  copper  may  have  been  obtained  by  the  Indians, 
along  with  analyses  of  numerous  specimens  of  aboriginal  manu- 
facture from  various  sources  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  It 
is  more  complete  and  satisfactory  than  any  other  paper  on  this 
subject. —  Moore,  Fla.,  213-241,  inclusive. 

The  glaciers  of  the  Ice  Age  which,  as  shall  presently  appear, 
created  conditions  that  led  to  the  discovery  of  copper  veins, 
also  distributed  the  metal  over  a  wide  territory. 

Native  copper  has  been  discovered  over  an  area  of  about  700  miles 
from  east  to  west  and  about  600  miles  north  and  south,  with  the  Lake 
Superior  copper  region  at  the  northern  edge.  This  brings  it  as  far  south 
as  Cincinnati,  and  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash.  It  seems,  however,  that 
south  of  northern  Indiana,  it  is  found  only  in  small  nuggets ;  few  of  them 
weighing  as  much  as  two  pounds."  —  Salisbury,  42. 

It  is  very  probable  that  many  pieces  of  copper  thus  trans- 
ported were  gathered  up  by  Indians  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  and 
worked  into  such  forms  as  they  desired ;  but  the  sum  total  of 
these  accidental  nuggets  is  insignificant  when  compared  with  the 
great  quantities  dug  out  from  the  deposits  whence  they  were 
derived. 

Gillman  describes  the  ancient  copper  mines  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  convey  the  idea  that  a  thin  covering  of  glacial  drift 
was  removed  and  excavations  carried  downward  in  solid,  com- 
pact rock,  with  underground  connections  and  drains. 

"  The  discoveries  on  the  Isle  Royale  throw  new  light  on  the  character 
of  the  '  Mound  Builders,'  *  *  *  dignifying  them  with  something  of 
the  prowess  and  spirit  of  adventure  which  we  associate  with  the  higher 
races.  The  copper  *  *  *  must,  in  all  probability,  have  been  conveyed 
in  vessels,  great  or  small,  across  a  stormy  and  treacherous  sea,  whose 
dangers  are  formidable  to  us  now,  being  dreaded  by  even  our  largest 
craft,  and  often  proving  their  destruction.  Leaving  their  homes,  those 
men  dared  to  face  the  unknown,  to  brave  the  hardships  and  perils  of  the 


The  Lake  Superior  Copper  Mines.  707 

deep  and  of  the  wilderness,  actuated  by  an  ambition  which  we  today  would 
not  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge."  —  Gillman,  M.  B.,  384. 

As  they  were  beings  not  entirely  devoid  of  understanding, 
it  is  more  likely  they  attempted  such  voyages  only  in  fair  weatlier. 
At  other  times,  if  it  was  imperative  for  them  to  seek  the 
mineral,  they  mined  it  on  Keweenaw  Point,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Ontonagon,  and  at  various  other  places  on  the  mainland. 

Schoolcraft's  explanations  are  free  from  such  romanticism, 
and  are  doubtless  quite  near  the  actiial  truth. 

"  The  Mound  Builders,  and  also  the  roving  tribes  of  the  west,  had 
many  uses  for  copper.  *  *  *  It  is  apparent,  that  the  Red  miners  of 
Lake  Superior  supplied  the  demand  in  its  fullest  extent.  They  probably 
received  in  exchange  for  it,  the  Zea  maize  of  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Scioto 
and  other  parts  of  the  West;  the  dried  venison  and  jerked  buffalo  meat 
of  the  prairie  tribes ;  the  sea-shells  of  the  open  coasts  of  the  Atlantic 
and  Gulf.  It  is  not  improbable,  indeed,  when  we  examine  the  rocky  char- 
acter of  much  of  the  Lake  Superior  region,  and  the  limited  area  of  its 
alluvions  and  uplands,  which  appear  ever  to  have  been  in  cultivation,  that 
parties  of  various  tribes  performed  extensive  journeys  to  this  upper  region, 
in  the  summer  season,  wdien  relieved  from  their  hunts,  to  dig  copper,  that 
it  was  a  neutral  territory;  and  having  supplied  their  villages,  in  the 
manner  the  Iowa  and  Minnesota  Indians  still  do,  in  relation  to  the  red 
pipestone  quarries  of  the  Coteau  des  Prairies,  returned  with  their  trophies 
■of  mining."  —  Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  99. 

Whittlesey  also  summarizes  the  facts  in  a  few  lucid,  com- 
prehensive sentences : — 

"  The  following  conclusions  may  be  drawn  with  reasonable  cer- 
tainty : 

"  An  ancient  people  extracted  copper  from  the  veins  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior of  whom  history  gives  no  account. 

"  They  did  it  in  a  rude  way,  by  means  of  fire  and  the  use  of  copper 
wedges  or  gads,  and  by  stone  mauls. 

"  They  had  only  the  simplest  mechanical  contrivances,  and  conse- 
quently penetrated  the  earth  but  a  short  distance. 

"  They  do  not  appear  to  have  acquired  any  skill  in  the  art  of  met- 
allurgy or  in  cutting  masses  of  copper. 

"  For  cutting  tools  they  had  chisels,  and  probably  adzes  or  axes  of 
copper.  These  tools  are  of  pure  copper,  and  hardened  only  by  condensa- 
tion or  beating  when  cold. 

"  They  sought  chiefly  for  small  masses  and  lumps,  and  not  for  large 
masses. 

No  sepulchral  mounds,  defences,  domiciles,  roads  or  canals  are 
known  to  have  been  made  by  them.  No  evidence  has  been  discovered  of 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 


708  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  They  had  weapons  of  defence  or  of  the  chase,  such  as  darts,  spears,, 
and  daggers  of  copper. 

"  They  must  have  been  numerous,  industrious,  and  persevering,  and 
have  occupied  the  country  a  long  time."  —  Whittlesey,  Mines,  29. 

The  last  sentence  of  his  conclusions  can  not  be  accepted 
just  as  it  stands;  industrious  and  persevering  the  old  quarrymen 
were,  but  not  necessarily  numerous;  while  Whittlesey  himself, 
as  noted  elsewhere,  has  shown  that  their  occupation  of  the  country 
could  be  only  intermittent..  Owing  to  the  climate,  such  work 
must  be  abandoned  for  several  months  in  the  year;  and  as 
Schoolcraft  well  says 

"  A  large  body  of  miners  could  not  have  been  kept  together  [through 
the  winter]  without  a  stock  of  provisions.  On  the  contrary,  as  the  the- 
atre of  summer  mining,  in  a  neutral  country,  or  by  self-dependent  bands, 
hundreds  of  years  may  have  passed  in  this  desultory  mining."  —  School- 
craft, History,  I,  100. 

The  method  of  procuring  the  copper  is  now  well  understood. 

"  In  their  mining  operations,  the  vein-rock  was  made  hot  by  building 
a  fire  on  or  against  it;  then,  by  dashing  on  water,  the  rock  would  not 
only  be  fractured,  but  the  exposed  pieces  of  copper  be  softened,  so  that  it 
could  be  beaten  into  shape.  When  the  metal  became  hard  in  consequence 
of  its  being  pounded,  it  was  again  heated  and  plunged  into  cold  water; 
for  copper  is,  in  this  respect,  the  opposite  of  steel ;  the  one  is  softened, 
while  the  other  is  rendered  hard,  when  rapidly  cooled  after  being  heated. 
In  this  way  copper  was  fashioned  simply  by  pounding."  —  Hoy,  5. 

"  At  the  Waterbury  mine,  beneath  the  surface  rubbish  the  remains 
of  a  gutter  or  trough  composed  of  cedar  bark  were  discovered,  the  object 
of  which  was  clearly  to  conduct  oft"  the  water  which  was  bailed  from  the 
mines  by  wooden  bowls.  Portions  of  the  fine  or  pulverized  copper  scales 
remained  at  the  end  of  this  trough.  After  removing  the  water  and  de- 
cayed leaves  at  the  bottom  of  the  excavation  a  piece  of  white  cedar  timber 
was  found,  one  end  of  which  exhibited  the  marks  of  a  cutting  instrument 
like  those  of  a  narrow  axe.  In  the  debris,  Dr.  Blake  discovered  several 
shovels,  of  white  cedar,  resembling  the  paddles  in  form  now  used  by  the 
Chippewa  Indians  in  propelling  their  canoes.  Had  these  been  found  else- 
where, they  would  have  been  regarded  as  ordinary  paddles,  but  in  this 
place  they  had  evidently  been  used  as  shovels.  This  is  also  evident  from 
the  manner  in  which  the  blades  are  worn.  The  shovels  which  were  found 
beneath  the  water  level  were  sound  in  appearance,  and  the  strokes  of  the 
tool  by  which  they  were  formed  remained  perfectly  distinct,  but  on  being 
dried  they  shrunk  very  much,  opening  in  long  cracks,  the  wood  retaining 
little  of  the  original  strength  or  hardness.  In  one  of  the  trenches,  a  ham- 
mer was  found  with  a  root  of  cedar  still  twisted  in  the  groove,  but  so 
much  decayed  that  it  fell  to  pieces."  —  Whittlesey,  Mining,  7-10,  con- 
densed. 


Age  of  Lake  Superior  Mining.  '    709 

"The  average  width  of  the  vein  is  four  feet,  extending  to  eight 
feet  in  places.  It  has  well  defined  walls,  and  is  filled  with  quartz,  epidote, 
calcareous  spar,  and  copper.  The  copper  exists  in  strings,  sheets,  nests, 
and  masses,  sometime-s  across  the  vein,  sometimes  on  one  side,  and  some- 
times on  the  other.  The  thickest  sheet  I  saw  was  two  and  a  half  feet." 
—  Schoolcraft,  History,  I,  97. 

Lapham  offers  the  following  suggestions  as  to  the  length 
of  time  that  may  have  passed  since  the  mines  were  abandoned. 

"  If  we  assume  the  age  of  the  tree  growing  upon  the  rubbish  thrown 
out  of  an  ancient  mine  (three  hundred  and  ninety-five  years)  as  indica- 
tive of  the  epoch,  or  near  it,  when  the  mines  were  worked,  it  is  only 
about  double  the  time  that  the  Chippewas  have  been  known  to  occupy 
this  region.  The  discovery  of  wooden  levers  and  wooden  bowls,  forbid 
us  to  assign  a  much  greater  antiquity  to  these  works.  As  far  back  as 
1666,  the  Chippewas  were  superstitious  and  shy  in  regard  to  copper  nug- 
gets in  their  possession,  keeping  them  wrapped  up  with  their  most  precious 
articles.  If,  then,  these  fragments  of  copper  were  held  so  sacred  as  to 
be  kept  and  handed  down  as  household  gods,  we  may  certainly  allow 
some  lapse  of  time  for  such  superstitions  to  originate  and  become  incor- 
porated into  the  religious  system  of  the  Chippewas;  and  a  comparatively 
slight  draft  upon  the  past,  anterior  to  that  period,  will  carry  them  back 
to  the  age  of  the  ancient  mining  and  mound  building." 

"  The  sleepers,  levers,  wooden  bowls,  etc.,  are  rather  indicative  of 
Caucasian   ingenuity   and   art. 

"  Nor  do  the  copper  knives  of  Lake  Superior  have  the  appearance  of 
great  antiquity.  Their  form  indicates  quite  plainly  the  knife  of  the 
white  man  ;  although  the  method  of  attaching  the  handle  by  turning  up 
the  edges,  may  be  of  aboriginal-  design."  —  Lapham,  75-6  condensed. 

All  these  data  are"  uncertain  guides.  The  rubbish  may 
have  lain  for  a  long  time  before  the  particular  tree  in  question 
began  to  grow.  The  Wooden  articles  mentioned  were  all  in  use 
among  Indians,  and  would  last  indefinitely  under  water,  especially 
when  it  contains  copper  in  solution;  the  form  of  the  handle 
certainly  proves  the  knife  aboriginal ;  the  blade  is  like  the  white 
man's  simply  because  that  is  the  best  shape.  Had  the  Indian 
borrowed  the  blade  of  the  modern  knife,  he  would  also  have 
borrowed  the  handle,  because  he  could  make  that  form  easily 
when  he  learned  its  advantage.  The  fact  that  mystic  or  magic 
powers  were  attributed  to  nuggets  proves  their  scarcity  among 
Chippewas  and  is  evidence,  that  the  latter  had  no  knowledge  or 
traditions  of  the  mining  operations. 

Some  years  since  a  man  who  had  Hved  in  this  region  since 
boyhood  told  the  writer  that  fully  sixty  years  before  he  had 


710  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

made  inquiries  of  the  older  Chippewas  concerning  the  mines. 
They  stated  in  reply  that  the  pits  and  other  signs  of  digging 
were  found,  practically  as  they  were  at  that  time,  when  the 
first  Chippewas  came  into  the  country;  that  their  tribe  had 
never  mined  copper,  but  "  the  old  men  "  (meaning  their  ances- 
tors) had  chopped  fragments  with  their  hatchets  from  boulders 
lying  on  the  surface  and  carried  them  to  the  sea-coast  to 
exchange  for  shells. 

"  After  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans,  *  *  *  there  was  no  reason 
why  the  Indians  should  trouble  themselves  further  to  obtain  domestic 
copper  by  the  toilsome  process  of  searching  and  digging  for  it."  —  Pack- 
ard, 179. 

"  Most  ot  the  misapprehension  in  this  matter  has  arisen  from  the  use 
of  the  misleading  term  '  mine.'  The  ancient  mines  were  not  mines  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  because  they  were  not  underground  work- 
ings. *  *  *  The  ancient  miners  did  not  sink  any  shafts  and  do  real 
mining;  they  were  only  surface  prospectors,  and  appear  to  have  dug  for 
copper  wherever  they  happened  to  find  it.  There  was  much  small  mass 
or  nugget  copper  released  by  the  disintegration  of  the  soft  epidote  vein 
stone;  and  pieces  of  many  tons  weight  are  occasionally  met  with.  The 
ancients  were  after  these  pieces  of  copper."  —  Packard,  192. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  who  has  made  a  careful  investigation  of 
this  region,  furnishes  the  following  abstract  of  his  report.  Brief 
as  it  is,  it  fully  explains  all  important  points  at  issue  except 
as  to  the  time  within  which  the  work  was  done.  This  must, 
for  the  present  and  perhaps  always,  remain  unknown. 

"  The  Lake  Superior  copper  occurs  in  veins,  bounded  on  either  side 
by  the  hard  metamorphic  rocks  making  the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan. 
The  action  of  the  atmosphere  and  of  the  acids  from  decaying  vegetation 
upon  the  mineral,  having  produced  a  partial  disintegration  of  the  gangue, 
or  rock  in  which  it  is  held,  the  glacier  scooped  out  deep  troughs  or  chan- 
nels in  the  rock  thus  softened.  Often  these  depressions  were  only  par- 
tially filled  with  drift,  leaving  more  or  less  of  the  copper-bearing  rock 
exposed  as  a  wall  on  either  side.  Aboriginal  mining  in  this  region  had  its 
beginning  in  the  hammering  or  cutting  off  of  portions  of  the  metal  thus 
left  visible ;  when  the  level  of  the  gravel  was  reached,  it  was  cleared  away 
to  follow  the  wall  downward.  From  this  it  was  but  a  step  to  removing  the 
loose  material  in  order  to  reach  the  copper  vein  at  the  bottom ;  and  soon 
it  was  discovered  that  wherever  one  of  these  partially  filled  trenches 
occurred,  copper  was  to  be  found  beneath  the  gravel,  whether  any  of  it 
could  be  seen  on  the  surface  or  not.  When  quarrying  in  the  solid  rock 
began,  it  was  carried  on  in  the  ordinary  Indian  fashion,  namely,  by  heat- 
ing the  rock,  pouring  water  on  it,  and  breaking  up  the  fragments  thus 
obtained,  with  stone  hammers;  perhaps  using  these  hammers  before  the 


Workable  Copper  in  the  Blue  Ridge.  711 

application  of  fire,  so  long  as  effective  work  in  this  manner  was  feasible 
or  profitable.  The  hammers  were  rounded,  water-worn  boulders,  carried 
up  from  the  lake  shore  or  from  the  lower  valleys.  Modern  work  has 
shown  that  some  excavations  thus  made  were  fully  twenty  feet  in  depth; 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  others  which  have  not  yet  been  cleared  out 
are  much  deeper." 

These  hammer-stones  were  of  various  sizes.    Whittlesey  says 

"  One  of  the  heaviest  mauls  yet  seen,  weighing  thirty-six  pounds, 
has  a  double  groove  which  is  not  usual,  and  it  was  intended,  no  doubt, 
to  be  used  by  two  men."  —  Whittlesey,  Mining,  18. 

This  means,  apparently,  that  two  handles  were  attached. 
A  little  reflection  will  make  it  clear  that  two  men  trying  to 
wield  one  instrument  in  this  manner  would  only  thwart  each 
other's  efforts.  As  a  hammer  of  such  weight  would  need  to 
be  very  stoutly  hafted,  the  second  groove  was  pecked  so  that 
two  turns  of  a  withe  could  be  made. 

Later  discoveries  have  shown  that  the  southern  Indians 
were  perhaps  not  entirely  dependent  upon  the  Lake  Superior 
deposits.  They  could  have  obtained  a  moderate  supply,  enough 
perhaps  to  account  for  all  relics  of  this  material  found  in  Vir- 
ginia and  southward,  at  points  much  nearer  home. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Weed,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
says  in  a  personal  communication : — 

"  I  have  found  native  copper  at  a  number  of  localities  in  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina.  In  the  Blue  Ridge  country  it  has  been  found  at 
certainly  a  dozen  or  more  localities,  as  reported  by  authentic  observers. 
I  myself  have  seen  it  in  masses  large  enough  to  be  worked  into  Indian 
implements  at  High  Knob,  near  Lindon,  Virginia,  and  in  pieces  weighing 
a  quarter  of  a  pound  or  more*^from  the  flanks  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  west  of 
Barbersville,  Virginia.  I  also  have  native  coppper  from  surface  croppings 
in  Person  and  Rowan  counties.  North  Carolina,  and  Fairfax  county, 
Virginia.  All  of  this  material  is  perfectly  pure  copper,  free  from  sul- 
phides or  other  impurities,  and  soft  and  malleable.  There  have  been  a 
number  of  copper  excitements  through  the  south,  and  at  such  times  the 
country  people  have  prospected  the  hillsides  and  gathered  great  quan- 
tities of  native  copper  specimens,  which  have  been  taken  home  and  may 
be  found  in  many  cabins  in  the  Blue  Ridge  country.  I  had  known  of  the 
supposition  that  the  Virginia  Indians,  and  in  fact  the  Indians  of  the  Atlan- 
tic states  generally,  derived  their  copper  from  the  Lake  Superior  region. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as  native  copper  can  be  found  at  all  of  the  localities 
I  have  noted,  and  at  many  others,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Indians  dis- 
covered its  presence  in  the  early  days.  At  some  of  the  ledges  which  I 
have  seen,  the  native  copper  stands  out  prominently  upon  the  surface  of 


712  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

the  rock  and  one  can  hardly  fail  to  observe  it.  The  largest  mass  which 
I  have  seen  in  place  weighed  perhaps  a  pound.  The  geological  and 
mineralogical  association  of  the  Blue  Ridge  copper  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  the  Lake  Superior  copper." 

So  far  as  its  working  qualities  are  concerned,  copper  at 
ordinary  temperature  is  much  more  malleable  than  pure  soft  iron ; 
and  it  is  more  easily  worked  into  shape  when  at  a  red  heat  than' 
when  cold.  If  hammered  cold,  it  must  be  annealed  occasionally, 
otherwise  it  becomes  brittle.  It  is  somewhat  hardened  'by  pound- 
ing, which  will  account  for  the  harder  edge  of  celts  and  other 
aboriginal  specimens  beaten  out  thin. 

A  copper  bead  was  made  thus :  "  A  thin,  flat  piece  of  metal,  with 
parallel  edges,  had  the  ends  brought  to  a  bevel  on  the  opposite  sides,  and 
was  then  bent  around  a  cord  or  thong  of  leather  until  the  ends  overlapped, 
after  which  they  were  beaten  closely  together."  —  Moorehead,  169. 

"  Cylindrical  articles  were  evidently  rolled  between  two  flat  rocks. 
*  *  *  Some  of  these  implements  that  have  been  supposed  to  be  cast, 
were,  I  think,  swedged ;  that  is,  a  matrix  was  excavated  in  stone,  into 
which  rudely  fashioned  copper  was  placed,  and  then  by  repeated  blows 
the  article  was  made  to  assume  the  shape  of  the  mould.  Nearly  all  those 
plano-convex  articles  could  be  made  in  this  manner.  [In]  '  Davenport 
[Iowa]  collection  =i^  *  *  the  axes  are  all  of  two  forms,  one  plano- 
convex, the  other  with  flat  sides.  They  are  all  cold  wrought  by  hammering, 
^:  *  *  and  are  notably  harder  on  the  edges  than  elsewhere.'  *  *  * 
Besides  this  half-swedging  process,  I  am  persuaded  that,  in  a  few  instances 
at  least,  there  was  a  complete  mould  worked  out  in  halves,  on  the  face 
of  two  flat  stones,  so  that  by  placing  a  suitable  piece  of  copper  between 
them  and  giving  it  repeated  heavy  blows,  the  copper  was  made  to  fill  the 
mould  accurately."  —  Hoy,  5. 

"  A  fibrous  texture  is  another  evidence  that  these  implements  were 
hammered  or  rolled  out.  This  fibrous  quality  is  well  exhibited  by  the 
action  of  strong  acid  on  the  specimens.  On  articles  that  are  cast,  the 
acid  acts  in  a  uniform  manner,  revealing  no  sti:i3e  or  hard  bands."  — 
Hoy,  3. 

'  Holmes  says  that  some  of  the  Wisconsin  specimens  are  of 
homogeneous  consistency  throughout,  showing  no  lamination  or 
variable  degree  of  hardness,  such  as  Hoy  says  would  result  from 
being  hammered  into  form ;  and  McGee  is  confident  that  they 
were  made  with  white  men's  tools,  if  indeed  they  were  not  actu- 
ally made  by  white  men.  The  truth  of  the  last  statement  may 
be  fully  admitted  without  thereby  assenting  to  the  suggestion 
that  other  specimens,  which  do  not  show  such  structure,  were 
not  made  by  Indians,  and  in  primitive  ways.     The  copper  region 


Melting  and  Moulding  Copper.  713 

was  among  those  earliest  visited  by  white  men  in  the  northwest ; 
and  if  copper  was  then  in  use  among  the  tribes  they  visited,  their 
more  expeditious  modes  of  working  would  be  adopted  by  the 
Indians  whenever  it  was  practicable  for  them  to  do  so.  Whit- 
tlesey thinks 

.  "  It  is  quite  singular  that  they  had  not  discovered  the  art  of  melting 
copper,  which  can  be  effected  so  easily  in  an  open  fire  made  of  wood,  but 
no  evidences  have  fallen  under  our  notice  that  this  was  done  by  that 
ancient  race."  —  Whittlesey,  Mining,  13. 

Even  if  copper  could  be  melted  in  an  open  fire,  which  is 
very  doubtful,  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  Indians  had  no 
materials  of  which  to  make  crucibles  or  moulds  capable  of  with- 
standing such  heat.  Admitting  they  had  clay  receptacles  which 
would  have  answered  these  purposes,  there  was  no  way  of  hand- 
ling the  molten  metal  with  safety.  A  leading  authority  in  metal- 
lurgy says 

"  The  melting  point  of  copper  has  not  been  determined  with  sufficient 
certainty;  it  lies  between  1000°  and  1200°  C,  and  according  to  Violle  is 
about  1054°."  — Schnabel,  1. 

The  last  figure  is  equivalent  to  1930°  on  the  Fahrenheit  scale 
in  general  use.  This  is  probably  more  nearly  correct  than  Hoy's 
figure.     He  says 

"  Copper  melts  at  from  2000  to  2600  degrees,  a  temperature  that  can 
be  reached  only  in  a  furnace,  assisted  by  some  form  of  coal  and  an  artificial 
blast.  '  Copper,  when  melted,  is  thick  and  pasty,  and  without  the  addition 
of  some  other  metal,  will  not  run  into  the  cavities  and  sinuosities  of  a 
mould.'  In  consulting  with  an  intelligent  brass  founder,  I  was  shown  a 
hammer  weighing  three  pounds,  cast  of  pure  copper,  and  was  assured  that 
this  was  the  smallest  casting  he  could  make  of  this  metal."  —  Hoy,  2. 

Pure  silver,  in  a  free  state,  is  found  in  the  Lake  Superior 
copper,  and  according  to  Hoy  affords  an  unerring  test  as  to 
whether  the  metal  has  been  fused. 

"  A  majority  of  copper  implements  found  have  specks  or  points  of 
silver  scattered  over  their  surfaces.  *  *  *  One  single  speck  of  pure 
silver,  visible  even  with  the  microscope,  is  positive  evidence  that  the 
copper  was  never  melted."  —  Hoy.  3. 

But  the  crowning  proof  that  Indians  could  never  succeed  in 
casting  solid  and  perfect  implements,  granting  that  they  could 
have  melted  the  metal  and  handled  it  in  that  state,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that 


714 


Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 


"  When  cast  in  moulds,  copper  has  the  property  of  rising  and  be- 
coming porous.  Sound  castings  can  only  be  obtained  by  means  of  special 
precautions,  such  as  pouring  at  the  lowest  possible  temperature,  the  addi- 
tion of  lead  before  pouring,  or  pouring  in  an  atmosphere  of  carbon 
dioxide."  —  Schnabel,  2. 


Figure  292  —  Cutting  and  Piercing  Tools  of  Coppen 


Figure  293  —  Copper  Hatchets  or  Celts. 


IMPLEMENTS   AND   ORNAMENTS    OF   COPPER. 

Except  some  awls,  needles,  drills,  knives,  and  arrow  or 
spear  heads,  such  as  are  shown  in  figure  292,  and  a  number  of 
celts  or  hatchets,  of  the  general  type  represented  in  figure  293 ;  — 
nearly  all  the  copper  objects  from  Ohio  were  intended  for 
personal  adornment  or  ceremonial  parade.  The  same  fact  has 
been  noticed  in  other  sections  distant  from  the  mines ;  while 
toward  the  north  implements  for  practical  uses  predominate* 


Wrought  Copper  Objects. 


715 


Figure   294. 
Copper  Plate,   with  Fragments  of  Cloth  Adhering. 

"  In  the  eastern  and  southern  parts  of  the  country  the  majority  of 
the  copper  articles  which  have  been  found  are  breast-plates,  bracelets, 
beads,  bobbin-like  objects  and  other  ornaments,  while  in  the  north  and 
west,  and  especially  in  Wisconsin,  implements  and  weapons  prevail."  — 
Packard,  178. 

"  It  is  a  little  singular  that  so  few  tools  of  copper  have  been  found 
[in  the  Michigan  mounds].  Finds  of  this  kind  in  Wisconsin  have  far 
exceeded  those  from  our  soils,  and  this  would  seem  to  indicate  less 
acquaintance  with  the  copper  quarries  of  Lake  Superior  on  the  part  of  the 


716 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


• 


Figure  295. 
Ornaments  of  Copper,   Battered  out  of  Form. 

ancient  inhabitants  of  our  peninsula,  than  among  the  dwellers  west  of 
Lake  Michigan."  —  Hubbard,  211. 

"  Wisconsin  covers  a  district  which  was  near  the  mines  and  is  in 
a  direct  course  for  people  leaving  them  going  south.  It  may  be  found  that 
that  district  was  the  seat  of  the  ancient  miners  themselves."  —  Pack- 
ard.   178. 


Wrought  Copper  Objects. 


717 


Packard  has  here  probably  struck  the  key-note  of  all  mining 
operations ;  namely,  that  they  were  carried  on  by  the  people  who 
lived  in  the  region  where  the  raw  material  existed,  and  that  these 
people  had  a  regular  system  of  exchange  with  others  farther 
away. 

The  same  remarks  concerning  the  purposes  to  which  vari- 
ous articles  made  of  other  substances  were  assigned,  are  equally 
applicable  to  copper.     By  the  natives,  it  was  considered  a  mal- 


Figure  296. 
Ornaments  of  Copper,    Battered  out  of  Form. 

leable  stone,  to  be  worked  and  utilized  as  other  rocks  except  in  so 
far  as  its  ductility  added  to  its  usefulness. 

A  large  copper  plate,  to  which  fragments  of  cloth  are  adher- 
ent, is  shown  in  figure  294. 

In  figures  295  and  296  are  shown  part  of  a  collection  of  gor- 
gets, bracelets,  and  other  objects  which  were  found  in  a  cache  just 
outside  the  eastern  wall  of  Fort  Ancient.  They  were  carefully 
buried  in  a  small  excavation,  made  solely  for  their  reception, 
and  covered  with  a  sheet  of  mica.  Why  they  were  thus  bent, 
twisted,  and  pounded,  in  a  manner  that  would  render  them 
forever  worthless  so  far  as  their  original  use  was  involved,  is 
a  question  which  can  not  be  answered.     Had  they  been  in  a 


718  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

mound  or  in  connection  with  a  burial,  they  could  be  regarded 
as  a  "  sacrificial  offering ",  like  the  pipes  of  Mound  City,  and 
similar  objects;  but  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
discovered  seem  to  preclude  this  construction  of  their  meaning. 
They  were  plainly  not  hidden  for  the  sake  of  safety,  or  they 
would  not  be  battered  out  of  shape.  As  in  so  many  other  things 
connected  with  our  predecessors,  we  can  only  record  the  fact 
without  throwing  any  light  upon  its  cause. 

The  so-called  "  spools ",  shown  in  figure  297  have  been 
found,  in  a  few  cases,  with  the  bones  o-f  the  fore-arm,  as  if 
intended  for  wrist  ornaments ;  but  so  many  occur  at  the  sides 


Figure   297. 
Spool-shaped  Ear  Ornaments  of  Copper. 

of  the  head  that  it  seems  almost  certain  they  were  worn  in  the 
lobes  of  the  ears,  slits  being  cut  for  inserting  them.  A  majority, 
perhaps,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  attached  to  either  the  body  or 
the  clothing  of  the  deceased,  but  were  apparently  deposited 
like  other  property,  sometimes  several  feet  from  the  nearest 
skeleton.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  strands  of  fiber  or  leather 
cords  wrapped  around  the  center  shaft.  A  similar  "  spool  "  was 
found  in  a  mound  near  Selma,  Alabama. —  Moore,  Ala.,  303. 

During  the  exploration  of  the  largest  mound  of  the  Hope- 
well group,  a  great  number  of  copper  objects  was  found,  so 
far  beyond  the  ordinary  forms  of  mound  relics  in  complexity  of 
design  as  to  create  serious  doubts  whether  they  could  be  pro- 
duced by  any  methods  or  implements  at  command  of  a  No-rth 
American  Indian,  or  Mound-Builder,  of  any  period.     Soma  of 


Wrought  Copper  Objects. 


719 


Figure   298. 
Wooden   Head-dress   Covered   With   Copper.     Hopewell  Mound. 

them  are  represented  in  figures  298,  299,  and  300,  from  plates  in 
Moorehead's  report.     The  find  is  described  on  pages  344-6. 

The  same  arguments  are  adduced  to  prove  the  European 
origin  of  these  objects,  that  have  been  apphed  to  other  intricate 
patterns,  a  few  of  which  are  exhibited  here  in  order  that  the 
reader  may  compare  the  different  forms. 

Figure  301  (B.  E.  12,  page  309,  figure  192)  shows  the  "  cop- 
per eagle"  found  by  Major  Powell  in  a  mound  at  Peoria,  Illmois. 


720 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


Scrolls. 


iSi;-p-<5SN$i 


Fish. 


Bear  (?)   Claws. 


Spider   (?). 
Figure  299  — Symbols  of  Copper.    Hopewell  Mound 


Wrought  Copper  Objects, 


721 


Figure  300  —  Serpent-head  Symbol.    Hopewell  Mound. 

It  "  appeared  to  be  made  of  rolled  sheet  copper,  or  if  the  sheet 
was  made  by  hammering  this  was  so  deftly  accomplished  that  every 
vestige  of  the  process  had  disappeared,  leaving  only  flat  surfaces  on 
both  sides,  with  a  uniform  thickness  of  metal.  If  these  articles  were 
the  work  of  the  Mound  Builders  in  pre-Columbian  times,  then  the 
people  must  have  possessed  arts  more  advanced  than  those  shown  by 
the  mound  arts  previously  studied."  —  Introduction,  B.  E.  12,  xxxix. 


Figures  302  and  303  (Burial  Mounds,  100- 1,  figures  42  and 
46 


722 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 


43)  show  two  remarkable  copper  plates  from  the  Etowah  mound, 
near  Cartersville,  Georgia. 

"  These  plates  are  very  thin,  and  as  even  and  smooth  (except  as 
interrupted  by  the  figures)  as  tin  plate.  The  figures  are  all  stamped, 
the  lines  and  indentations  being  very  sharp  and  regular,  *  *  *  j^ 
all  their  leading  features  the  designs  themselves  are  suggestive  of  Mexican 
or  Central  American  work.  Yet  *  *  *  ^j^^  wings  are  represented  as 
rising  from  the  back  of  the  shoulders  *  *  *  ^n  idea  wholly  foreign 
to  Mexican  art.  *  *  *  That  these  plates  are  not  the  work  of  the 
Indians  inhabiting  the  southern  sections  of  the  United  States,  or  of 
their    direct    ancestors,    I    freely    concede.    That    they    were    not    made 


Figure   301  —  Copper   Eagle.    Peoria,    Illinois. 

by  the  aboriginal  artisan  of  Central  America  or  Mexico  of  ante- 
Columbian  times,  I  think  is  evident,  if  not  from  the  designs  themselves, 
certainly  from  the  indisputable  evidence  that  the  work  was  done  with 
hard,  metallic  tools."  —  Burial  Mounds,  104. 

"  As  a  matter  of  course,  no  one  denies  that  the  Mound  Builders 
made  implements  and  ornaments  of  native  copper,  and  frequently  ham- 
mered this  copper  into  thin  sheets  with  the  rude  implements  of  which 
they  were  possessed.  What  is  here  affirmed,  and  what,  it  is  believed  can 
be  successfully  maintained  by  reference  to  and  inspection  of  the  articles, 
is,  that  many  of  them,  found  in  mounds  as  well  as  in  ancient  graves, 
have  been  made  from  sheets  of  copper  so  uniform  and  even  as  to  forbid 
the  belief  that  they  were  hammered  out  with  the  rude  implements 
possessed  by  the  Mound  Builders  of  pre-Columbian  times.  A  careful 
chemical  and  microscopical  examination  of  the  various  specimens  might 
possibly  settle  the  point;  however,  as  this  has  not  been  done,  we  must 
for  the  present  rely  upon  inspection."  —  B.  E.  12,  711. 


Wrought  Copper  Objects. 


723 


Figure 


—  Copper 


Etowah     Mound.    Georgia. 


In  a  discussion  of  the  "  copper  beads  or  cylinders  "  found  in  the  T. 
F.  Nelson  triangle,  Thomas  remarks  that  "a  careful  examination  of 
these  specimens  shows  *  *  that  the  copper  plate  of  which  they  were 
made  was  not  manufactured  by  any  means  at  the  command  of  the  Indians 
or  the  more  civilized  races  of  Mexico  or  Central  America,  as  it  is  as 
smooth  and  even  as  any  rolled  copper;  moreover,  the  beads  appear  to 
have  been  cut  into  the  proper  shape  by  some  metallic  instrument."  — 
Burial  Mounds,  91. 


724 


Archaeological  History  of  Ohio, 


Figure  303  —  Copper   Plate.    Etowah  Mound.    Georgia. 

"  What  explanation  shall  we  give  of  the  presence  *  *  *  of 
thin  sheet  copper  [in  the  mounds]  ?  The  simple  and  most  natural 
explanation  would  be  that  it  was  derived  from  European  traders  and 
early  adventurers.  *  *  *  'pj^e  distinction  between  the  sheets  and  orna- 
ments hammered  from  native  copper  with  the  rude  implements  of  the 
aborigines,  and  many  specimens  of  this  smooth  sheet  copper  found  in 
the  mounds,  is  too  apparent  to  be  overlooked."  —  Burial  Mounds,  48. 

These  designs  are  of  the  same  character  as  those  on  the 
large  shells  from  Tennessee  and  Missouri,  mentioned  on  page 
687.  They  may  have  been  made  in  Mexico  and  imported;  or 
at  the  localities  where  they  were  unearthed,  by  some  one  familiar 


Wrought  Copper  Objects.  725 

with  Mexican  art;  but  all  the  proof  is  against  the  assumption 
that  they  are  the  work  of  white  men. 

In  the  first  place,  the  theory  meets  the  same  objection 
urged  in  the  case  of  ceremonial  stones;  that  is,  Why  should 
Europeans,  all  at  once,  begin  to  make  objects  of  entirely  different 
shapes  from  anything  they  had  ever  made  before,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  trading  them  to  a  people  who  never  saw  anything 
of  the  kind,  and  to  whom,  consequently,  they  would  have  n6 
meaning  ? 

Secondly,  the  same  mo-und  at  Hopewell's  yielded  copper 
in  various  forms  intermediary  between  the  nugget  and  the  finished 
product. 

Professor  Putnam,  in  a  letter  to  the  author,  says : — "  copper  began 
to  come  in  from  our  Ohio  explorations  in  a  wonderful  manner.  *  *  * 
We  have  it  hammered  and  cut  into  all  manner  of  shapes,  *  *  *  and 
we  have  the  copper  in  all  stages  from  the  rough  nuggets,  through 
those  partly  hammered  to  the  sheets  and  the  objects  cut  from  them. 
To  consider  this  the  work  of  Europeans  is  an  absurd  perversion  of 
the  facts  before  us."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  220. 

Holes  in  a  copper  plate  from  a  mound  in  Florida  were  repaired 
by  a  thin  sheet  of  copper  firmly  riveted.  "  The  patch  was  not  cut  to 
fit  closely  the  part  repaired  but  extends  well  beyond,  and  presents  a  rough, 
irregular,  unworked  margin  as  though  the  piece  had  been  hammered 
from  a  thin  lump  of  metal.  That  fhis  work  was  done  before  the  com- 
pletion of  the  plate,  and  not  to  repair  holes  made  during  subsequent 
use,  is  shown  by  the  way  in  which  the  plates  participate  in  the  dec- 
oration." 

"  At  several  points  where  a  tendency  to  exfoliation  was  evident, 
rivets  were  used  to  hold  the  loosened  edges  in  place."  The  exfoliation 
arose  "  during  the  process  of  construction  of  the  sheet  as  evidenced  by 
the  rivets.  This  condition  is  frequently  observed  in  hammered  masses 
of  copper,  and  in  copper  ornaments  and  implements  obtained  from 
mounds.  *  *  *  \ye  are  of  the  opinion  that  these  plates  may  not 
tinder  any  circumstances  be  attributed  to  the  handiwork  of  artisans  of 
Europe."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  217  and  219. 

Thirdly,  Moore  had  a  large  number  of  analyses  made  of 
European  copper,  of  various  ages,  and  of  objects  from  the 
mo'unds. 

"  As  a  result  of  these  analyses,  we  see  that  in  '  Lake '  [Superior] 
copper,  silver  and  iron  are  constant,  and  sometimes  the  only  impurities; 
while  arsenic,  nickel  and  cobalt  are  occasionally  present  in  minute 
quantities.  Lead  and  bismuth  are  invariably  absent.  All  these  char- 
acteristics Lake  Superior  copper  has  in  common  with  the  copper  of 
the  mounds" 


726  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

"  Mouna  copper  from  other  localities  [than  Florida],  including 
the  copper  of  the  famous  Etowah  plates  of  Georgia,  and  of  the  no 
less  well-known  Hopewell  mounds  of  Ohio,  is,  like  the  Florida  copper, 
aboriginal,  having  nothing  in  common  with  the  products  of  the  impure 
European  sulphides  and  imperfect  smelting  processes  of  the  fifteenth, 
sixteenth,  and  seventeenth  centuries."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  241. 

"In  a  great  majority  of  cases  where  the  discovery  of  the  copper 
with  articles  giving  evidence  of  White  contact  is  reported,  the  metal  is 
in  reality  brass."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  225. 

There  is  an  additional  test  which  has  not  yet  been  made 
by  any  collector,  or  if  so  no  report  of  it  has  become  public; 
but  the  condition  of  the  objects  from  Fort  Ancient,  shown  in 
figures  295  and  296,  could  not  be  duplicated  in  European  copper 
of  two  centuries  ago. 

"  Take  a  piece  of  mound  copper  and  hammer  it  thoroughly  to  harden 
it,  then  bend  it  double  and  hammer  it  down  flat.  If  it  is  native  copper 
it  will  stand  the  test  without  a  show  of  cracking,  but  if  it  is  smelted 
copper  it  will  break  short  in  bending  double."  —  Moore,  Fla.,  232  —  on 
the  authority  of  Superintendent  Cooper,  of  the  Lake  Superior  Smelting 
Company. 

Fourthly,  the  process  of  ro'lling  metal  into  thin  sheets  was 
apparently  unknown  prior  to  the  eighteenth  century.  Such  was 
certainly  the  case  with  iron;  and  it  is  extremely  improbable  that 
metal-workers  would  have  known  how  to  roll  copper  for  two 
or  three  centuries  before  it  would  occur  to  them  that  iron  could 
be  made  into  sheets  in  the  same  manner. 

"  In  1783  Henry  Cort,  of  Gosport,  England,  obtained  a  patent  for 
rolling  iron  into  bars.  John  Payne  and  Major  Henbury  rolled  sheet  iron 
as  early  as  1728.  The  refining  of  pig  iron  in  forges  and  its  subsequent 
conversion  into  bars  and  plates  under  a  hammer  formed  the  only  general 
method  of  producing  finished  iron  down  to  Cort's  day,  both  in  Great  Britain 
and  on  the  continent."  —  Swank,  53. 

Finally,  Gushing,  with  his  characteristic  propensity  for  doing 
things  first  and  talking  about  them  afterwards,  showed  how 
these  articles  could  be  made  with  appliances  no  more  complicated 
or  difficult  to  procure  than  many  other  tools  devised  by  savages. 
It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  the  specimens  oi  his  own  handi- 
work were  rather  poorly  executed,  by  comparison,  and  the  edges 
were  not  smooth  and  uniform  along  the  sharp  curves  as  in  the 
mound  specimens.    This  defect  might  be  remedied  with  practice. 


Wrought  Copper  Objects.  727 

After  giving  a  synopsis  of  the  discussion  raised  by  copper 
plates  from  the  Hopewell  mounds,  and  comparing  them  with  the 
work  done  by  the  Zuni,  he  proceeds  to  describe  his  own  experi- 
ments with  copper. 

By  laying  a  piece  of  the  metal  on  a  hard,  smooth  stone  and  beating 
it  gently  with  a  fine-grained  stone  hammer,  he  spread  it  out  into  a  thin 
but  irregular  sheet.  The  blow  must  always  be  slanting,  from  the  center 
toward  the  edge.  With  another  hammer,  smooth  or  polished,  slight  ine- 
qualities are  reduced.  The  latter  effect  may  also  be  produced  by  a  rolling 
or  rocking  motion  with  a  smooth  pebble.  Then,  laying  the  copper  on  a 
firm  level  space,  with  a  piece  of  buckskin  beneath  it,  he  rubbed  first  one 
surface,  then  the  other,  with  a  piece  of  fine-grained,  smooth-surfaced 
sandstone.  In  this  manner  he  secured  a  plate  of  practically  uniform  thick- 
ness and  surface.  To  reproduce  a  given  design,  he  "  lightly  traced  the 
outline  of  the  figure  on  one  face  of  the  metal  plate,  and  placed  the  latter, 
with  tracing  uppermost,  on  a  yielding  mat  of  buckskin,  folded  and  laid 
on  a  level,  hard  spot  of  ground.  Then  I  took  a  long  pointed  tool  of  buck- 
horn  and  pressed  downward  with  as  much  of  my  weight  as  was  need- 
ful to  make  it  sink  slightly  into  the  metal.  *  *  *  Moderately  deep 
and  remarkably  sharp  smooth  grooves  were  thus  plowed  or  impressed 
in  the  ductile  metal  wherever  the  horn  point  had  traversed  it  except 
along  upward  curves  and  around  sharp  turns  or  where  hard  places  hap- 
pened to  occur  in  the  plate."  These  defects  were  remedied  by  "  a  rounded 
chisel  made  from  the  humerus  of  a  deer,  like  an  Indian  skin-flesher  of 
bone.  This,  firmly  grasped  and  pressed  by  the  hand  alone,  then  rolled 
or  rocked  to  and  fro,  served  admirably  to  deepen  straight  grooves  to  any 
extent  desirable,  or,  if  twirled  while  it  was  being  pressed  down  and  rocked, 
to  impress  or  deepen  curved  lines.  When  all  the  lines  of  the  design  had 
been  completed  by  these  combined  processes  *  *  *  ^\^q  plate,  on  being 
turned  over,  exhibited  in  clearly  raised  outline  the  reverse,  of  the  pattern 
I  had  traced  and  thus  embossed.  On  grinding  these  sharp  edges  cross- 
wise with  a  flat  piece  of  sandstone  their  apices  were  speedily  cut  through 
and  the  eagle  form  as  outlined  by  the  embossing  was  thus  completely 
severed  from  the  plate."  He  also  made  patterns  from  thin  rawhide.  By 
holding  one  of  these  "  against  the  plate  to  be  embossed  for  cutting  out, 
then  running  the  horn  point  around  it  to  strike-in  one  side  of  the  design, 
reversing  the  pattern  and  continuing  the  embossing  operation  for  the 
other  side,  an  outline  at  once  intricate,  and  of  course,  bilaterally  sym- 
metrical, could  be  almost  as  rapidly  struck  in  as  could  the  simplest  de- 
vice." "An  inspection  of  [the  Hopewell]  specimens,  and,  subsequently, 
of  those  comprising  the  collection  now  in  the  Bureau  of  American  Eth- 
nology, convinced  me  that  they  had  been  worked  by  methods  probably 
similar  to,  if  not  identical  with  mine.  First,  the  plates  of  which  these 
figures  were  made  had  been  smoothed  by  scouring;  second,  the  cut  edges 
of  figures  or  open-work  patterns  were  slightly  beveled,  except  at  points 
where  they  had  been  more  or  less  dressed  down  by  crosswise  grinding 
with  gritty  stone;    third,  the  edges  of  small  open  spaces,  such  as  holes 


728  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

[other  than  drilled  ones]  less  than  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  (too 
small  for  the  introduction  of  pointed  grinding  stones),  had  not  been 
dressed  from  the  inside,  as  they  might  have  been  had  the  artificers  of 
the  specimens  possessed  slender  files,  but  had  been  left  sharp  and  raised, 
and  showed  distinct  trace  of  the  horizontal  grinding  by  which,  after 
they  had  been  partially  punched  or  raised,  they  had  been  cut  through; 
fourth,  after  the  outlines  and  open  spaces  had  been  cut  in  the  more  elab- 
orate of  these  specimens,  the  latter  had  been  again  turned  over  and  em- 
bossed, mainly  by  pressure,  from  the  side  opposite  the  one  from  which 
they  had  been  impressed  for  the  cutting."  "  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say, 
*  *  *  first,  that  I  have  neither  seen  nor  heard  of  a  single  object  of 
copper  from  the  mounds  which  I  cannot  reproduce  from  native  or  nod- 
ular copper  with  only  primitive  appliances  of  the  kind  described,  by  suc- 
cessive processes  of  stone-hammering,  beating  and  rolling,  scouring,  em- 
bossing and  grinding  —  such  processes  as,  in  more  or  less  modified  ways, 
are  actually  employed  today  by  comparatively  rude  Indians  in  the  fash- 
ioning and  embossing  of  parfleche,  horn,  and  other  like  substances;  sec- 
ond, that  sufficient  results  of  these  experimental  studies  have  been  above 
brought  forward,  I  trust,  to  establish  as  an  easy  possibility,  if  not  prob- 
ability, the  aboriginal  and  prehistoric  character  of  the  workmanship  on 
the  sheet-copper  articles  from  the  Ohio  and  more  southern  mounds." 
After  discussing  the  similarity  of  the  designs  on  copper  plates  to  those 
on  the  engraved  shells,  and  the  analogy  of  both  to  some  work  done  by  the 
Indians  of  the  southwest,  Gushing  remarks :  "  The  bearing  of  these 
observations  on  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  copper  and  shell 
arts  of  the  Mound  Builders,  both  in  design  and  workmanship,  were  indi- 
genous, is  important.  They  show  conclusively,  I  think  that  both  arts 
were  Indian,  and  that  both  were  North  American  Indian.  Thus,  some 
of  the  copper  works  may  be  as  ancient  as  the  fondest  romanticist  could 
wish,  or  on  the  contrary  (and  some  of  them  probably  are),  as  modern 
as  the  days  of  De  Soto;  but,  whether  ancient  or  recent,  they  are  of 
Indian  origin  ^nd  neither  Oriental,  as  some  have  claimed,  nor  European, 
as  others  have  naturally  been  led  to  infer  by  the  very  high  degree  of 
workmanship  they  exhibit  and  by  certain  supposedly  analogous  art  traits." 
—  Gushing,  Gopper. 


APPENDIX. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REFERENCE    NOTES. 

All  titles  marked  "^  are  recommended  for  careful  reading. 

A.  A.  A.  S. —  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science. 

*  Abbott. —  C.  C.  Abbott :  Primitive  Industry. 

Abbott,  Frauds. —  C.  C.  Abbott:  Archaeological  Frauds;  in 
P.  S.  M.,  July,  1885. 

*  Adair. —  Adair:  History  of  the  American  Indians  (1775). 
Amer. —  Archgeologia  Americana:  Journal  of  the  American 

Antiquarian  Society. 

*  Amer.  Anth. —  The  American  Anthropologist :  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

*  Amer.  Antiq. —  The  American  Antiquarian. 

*  Amer.  Arch. —  The  American  Archaeologist. 
Amer.  Geol. —  The  American  Geologist. 

Amer.  Jour.  S.  A. —  The  American  Journal  of  Science  and 
Arts. 

Amer.  Nat. —  The  American  Naturalist. 

Amer.  Pion. —  The  American  Pioneer  (1842-3). 

*  Anahuac. —  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor :  Anahuac. 

Andrews,  Cave.- — E.  B.  Andrews:  An  Exploration  of  Ash 
Cave  in  Benton  Township,  Hocking  County,  Ohio;  in  Pea.  Mus., 
II,  10. 

Andrews,  Mounds. — E.  B.  Andrews :  Report  of  Exploration 
of  Mounds  in  Southeastern  Ohio;  in  Pea.  Mus.,  II,  10. 

*  Antiq. —  The  Antiquarian. 

Ant.  Soc— Transactions  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society. 

Atwater. —  Caleb  Atwater:  A  Description  of  the  Antiqui- 
ties of  Ohio;  in  Amer.  I  (1820). 

Atwater,  Indians. —  Caleb  Atwater:  Indians  of  the  North- 
west. 

(729) 


730  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Aughey. —  Samuel  Augh^y:  The  Superficial  Deposits  of 
Nebraska ;  in  Hay  den,  1874. 

*  Baldwin. —  C.  C.  Baldwin ;  Early  Indian  Migrations  in 
Ohio;  in  W.  R.  H.,  No.  47. 

'Bancroft. — George  Bancroft;  History  of  the  United  States, 
ni,  p.  307. 

Bancroft,  H.  H. — H.  H.  Bancroft:  Native  Races  of  the 
Pacific  Coast. 

Bandelier. —  A.  F.  Bandelier:  Archaeological  Tour  through 
the  Southwest,  p.  202. 

Barber. —  E.  A.  Barber:  Mound  Pipes;  in  Amer.  Nat.,. 
XVI,  4. 

Barber,  Steatite. —  E.  A.  Barber;  in  Amer.  Nat.,  XII. 

Bartrams. — William  and  John  Bartram:  Travels  through 
the  Southern  States. 

*B.  E. — ^Annual  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology;  the 
figure  denotes  the  number  of  the  report. 

*  Beach. —  W.  W.  Beach :  The  Indian  Miscellany. 

*  Beauchamp. —  W.  M.  Beauchamp :  The  Iroquois  Trail. 

*  B.  E.  Bui. —  Bulletins  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology. 

Beck. —  Lewis  C.  Beck :  A  Gazetteer  of  the  States  of  Illinois 
and  Missouri. 

Beckwith. —  E.  G.  Beckwith:  Exploration  for  a  Route  for 
the  Pacific  Railroad. 

BerHn. —  A.  F.  Berlin:  Fraudulent  Objects  of  Stone;  in 
Amer.  Antiq.,  VIII,  2. 

Bevel. — Thomas  Wilson:  Beveled  Arrow-heads;  in  Amer. 
Arch.,  II. 

Beverly. —  Beverly :  History  of  Virginia. 

Biart. —  Biart:  The  Aztecs. 

Boston  Mem. —  Memoirs  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History. 

Best.  Soc. —  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History. 

Bourke.— John  G.  Bourke:  The  Medicine  Man  of  the 
Apache;  in  B.  E.  9. 

Bourke,  Vesper. —  John  G.  Bourke :  Vesper  Hours  of  the   , 
Stone  Age;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  Ill,  Jan'y,  1890. 

Brackenridge. —  Brackenridge :  Views  of  Louisiana. 


Appendix.  731 

Brecht. —  Jacob  E.  Brecht,  M.  D. :  Improved  Sanitary  and 
Social  Conditions  of  the  Seminoles  of  Florida ;  in  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association,  XXVI,  14. 

Brickell. —  John  Brickell :  Natural  History  of  North  Carolina. 

*  Brinton,  Hero. —  D.  G.   Brinton ;  American   Hero-Myths. 

*  Brinton,  Lenape. —  D.  G.  Brinton :  The  Lenape  and  Their 
Legends. 

*  Brinton,  Race. —  D.  G.  Brinton :  The  American  Race. 
Broadhead. —  G.    C.    Broadhead:    Prehistoric   Evidences   in 

Missouri ;  in  Sm.  Rep.,  1879. 

Bui.  Amer.  Geo.  Soc. —  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geograph- 
ical Society,  XXVII,  4. 

*  Burial  Mounds. —  Cyrus  Thomas :  Burial  Mounds  of  the 
Northern  Sections  of  the  United  States ;  in  B.  E.  5. 

Burnet. —  Jacob  Burnet :  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of 
the  Northwestern  Territory. 

Burnet,  Letters. —  Jacob  Burnet:  Letters  Relating  to  the 
Early  Settlement  of  the  Northwestern  Territory. 

Butler.—  J.  D.  Butler :  Early  Historic  Relics  of  the  North- 
west.     Aztalan;  —  The  Ancient  City;  in  W.  H.  C,  IX. 

Campbell. —  John  Campbell,  M.  A. :  Proposed  Reading  of 
the  Davenport  Tablets;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  IV,  Jan'y,  1892. 

Can.  Savage. —  McLean :  Canadian  Savage  Folk. 

Carr,  Crania. —  Lucien  Carr:  Notes  on  the  Crania  of  New 
England  Indians;  in  Bost.  Soc,  1880. 

*  Carr,  Dress. —  Lucien  Carr :  Dress  and  Ornaments  of 
Certain  Indians;  in  Ant.  Soc,  XI,  3. 

*  Carr,  Food. —  Lucien  Carr :  The  Food  of  Certain  Ameri- 
can Indians ;  in  Ant.  Soc,  VII. 

*  Carr,  Mounds. —  Lucien  Carr :  Mounds  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  Historically  Considered;  in  Kentucky  Geological  Survey, 
II;  also  (reprinted)  in  Sm.  Rep.,  1891. 

*Carr,  Woman. — Lucien  Carr:  On  the  Social  and  Polit- 
ical Position  of  Woman  among  the  Huron-Iroquois;  in  Pea. 
Mus.,  XVI  and  XVII. 

Carver. —  Jonathan  Carver:  Travels  in  North  America. 

*  Catlin,  Indians. —  George  Catlin :  Illustrations  of  the  Man- 
ners, Customs,  and  Condition  of  the  North  American  Indians. 


732  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

*Catlin,  Mandans. —  George  Catlin;  Mandans;  in  Nat. 
Mus.,  1885. 

*  Catlin,  Rambles. —  George  Catlin :  Last  Rambles  among 
the  Indians. 

*  Cent.  Rep.—  M.  C.  Read  and  Col.  Chas.  Whittlesey :  Antiq- 
uities of  Ohio;  in  Ohio  Centennial  Report  (1876). 

*  Charnay. — Desire  Charnay :  Ancient  Cities  of  the  New- 
World. 

Chase. —  Lieutenant  Chase :  Manuscript  Report  on  the  Shell 
Mounds  of  Oregon. 

Cheever. —  E.  E.  Cheever :  The  Indians  of  CaHfornia ;  in 
Amer.  Nat.,  IV,  3. 

Cin.  Jour. —  Cincinnati  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science. 

*  Civilization. —  Sir  John  Lubbock :  Origin  of  CiviHzation. 
Clarke. —  Robert  Clarke :  Prehistoric  Remains  at  Cincinnati. 
Claypole. —  E.  W.  Claypole :    Human  Relics  in  the  Drift  of 

Ohio;  in  Amer.  Geol.,  XVIII,  5. 

ClintO'U. —  De  Witt  Clinton:  Antiquities  of  the  Western 
Parts  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Collins. —  Collins  :     History  of  Kentucky. 

Col.  Smith. — Col.  James  Smith :  Account  of  Captivity  among 
the  Indians. 

Coville. —  Coville ;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  V. 

Cremony. —  J.  C.  Cremony:     Life  among  the  Apaches. 

Crook. —  General  Crook;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1871. 

Crookshanks. —  Dr.  Crookshanks;  in  Amer.  Pion.,  II. 

Cuming. —  F.  Cuming :  Sketches  of  a  Tour  to  the  Western 
Country. 

''' Gushing,  Copper. —  Frank  H.  Gushing:  Primitive  Copper 
Working;  an  Experimental  Study;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  VII,  Jan. 
1894. 

Gushing,  Zuni. —  Frank  H.  Gushing:    Zuni  Fetiches;  in  B. 

E.2. 

Gusick. —  David  Gusick:  Sketches  of  Ancient  History  of 
the  Six  Nations;  in  Beauchamp. 

Dale.— L.  Dale;  in  G.  B.  &  I. 

Dall.—  Dr.  W.  H.  Dall ;  in  B.  E.  12,  p.  328. 


Appendix.  73a 

Dana. —  Jas.  D.  Dana :  On  Dr.  Koch's  Evidence  with  regard 
to  the  Contemporaneity  of  Man  and  the  Mastodon  in  Missouri ; 
in  Amer.  Jour.  S.  A.,  third  series,  IX,  53. 

Dav. —  Proceedings  of  the  Davenport  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences. 

*  Dawson. —  J.  W.  Dawson :  Fossil  Men  and  Their  Modern 
Representatives. 

De  Forest. —  J.  W.  De  Forest:  History  of  the  Indians  of 
Connecticut. 

*  Dellenbaugh. — Frederick  S.  Dellenbaugh :  The  North 
Americans  of  Yesterday. 

*  Dodge,  Indians. —  Col.  Richard  I.  Dodge :  Our  Wild 
Indians. 

*  Dodge,  Plains. —  Col.  Richard  I.  Dodge :  Plains  of  the 
Great  West. 

Dr.    Drake. —  Dr.   Daniel   Drake:      Pictures    of    Cincinnati 

(1815.) 

*  Drake,  Ab.  Races. —  Samuel  G.  Drake :    Aboriginal  Races 

of  North  America. 

Drilling. —  Chas.  Rau  :  Drilling  in  Stone  without  Metal ;  in 
Sm.  Rep.  1868,  p.  392. 

*  Dunn. —  Dunn :     Massacres  of  the  Mo'untains. 

Du  Pratz. —  Du  Pratz  :    History  of  Louisiana  (1763.) 
Du  Pre. —  L.  J.  Du  Pre :    Wonders  of  the  Lowlands ;  in  Har- 
per's Magazine,  Feby.  1875. 

Eells. —  Myrom  Eells :  The  Stone  Age  of  Oregon;  in  Sm. 
Rep.  1886. 

Eells,  Twana. —  Myrom  Eells  :  The  Twana,  Chemakum  and 
Klallam  Indians  of  Washington  Territo-ry;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1887. 
Also  in  Hay  den,  1877. 

*  Essays. —  D.  G.  Brinton :     Essays  of  an  Americanist. 

*  Evans. —  Sir  John  Evans  :  The  Ancient  Stone  Implements, 
Weapons  and  Ornaments  of  Great  Britain. 

Featherstonehaugh.— G.  W.  Featherstonehaugh  :  Excur- 
sion through  the  Slave  States. 

Fergusson. —  Fergusson :    Tree  and  Serpent  Worship. 

*  Field  Work.—  W.  K.  Moorehead :  Report  of  Field  Work ; 
in  O.  A.  H.,  V  and  VII. 


'734  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Fiji. —  Williams  and  Calvert:    Fiji  and  the  Fijians. 
Finley. —  J.  B.  Finley:     Life  among  the  Indians. 

*  Fishing. —  Chas.  Rau :  Prehistoric  Fishing  in  Europe  and 
America. 

Fiske. —  John  Fiske :    The  Beginnings  of  New  England. 
Fiske,  Science. —  John  Fiske:     A  Century  of  Science. 
Fletcher. —  Robert  Fletcher :    On  Prehistoric  Trephining  and 
Cranial  Amulets ;  in  N.  A.  Cont.,  V. 

*  Fletcher,  Omahas. —  Alice  Fletcher :  Tribal  Life  among 
the  Omahas;  in  Century  Magazine,  Jany.  1896. 

Fletcher,  XVL— Alice  Fletcher;  in  Pea.  Mus.,  IIL 
Flint. —  Timothy  Flint:    A  Condensed  Geography  and  His- 
tory of  the  Western  States  (1828.) 

Forbes. —  Litton  Forbes:    Two  Years  in  Fiji. 

*  Force.—  M.  F.  Force :  To  What  Race  Did  the  Mound- 
builders  Belong? 

*  Force,  Indians. —  M.  F.  Force :  Some  Early  Notices  of  the 
Indians  of  Ohio. 

Forum. —  J.  W.  Powell:  Whence  Came  the  American 
Indian?;  in  The  Forum,  Feby.  1898. 

*  Foster. —  J.  W.  Foster :  Prehisto-ric  Races  of  the  United 
States. 

*  Ft.  A. — W.  K.  Moorehead :    Fort  Ancient. 

Gallatin. —  Albert  Gallatin;  in  Amer.,  II. 

G.  B.  &  I. —  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Gibbon. —  Gibbon :  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
III,  p.  4. 

*  Giddings. —  Joshua  R.  Giddings  :  The  Florida  Exiles  and 
the  War  for  Slavery. 

Gill. —  De  Lancy  W.  Gill:  Aboriginal  Mica  Mining  in 
North  Carolina  (MS). 

Gillespie. —  Dr.  Gillespie:  Flint  Cores  as  Implements;  in 
G.  B.  &  I.,  VI. 

Gillman,  M.  B. — Henry  Gillman:  The  Mound  Builders  and 
Platycnemism  in  Michigan ;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1873. 

Gillman,  Lakes. —  Henry  Gillman :  The  Ancient  Men  of  the 
Great  Lakes. 


Appendix.  735 

Gooch.— W.  D.  Gooch;  in  G.  B.  &  I. 
Gray. —  W.  H.  Gray :    History  of  Oregon. 
Griesbach. —  C.  L.  Griesbach;  in  G.  B.  &  I. 

*  Grinnell. —  Geo.  B.  Grinnell :     The  Story  of  the  Indian. 

*  Hale. —  Horatio  Hale :  Indian  Migrations  as  Evidenced  bv 
Language ;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  V. 

Harper. —  Thomas  Harper ;  in  Amer.  Arch.,  March  1898, 

Harris. —  Thaddeus  Mason  Harris  :  Journal  of  a  Tour  into 
the  Territory  Northwest  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  (1805). 

Harrison. — W.  H.  Harrison :  A  Discourse  on  the  Aborigines 
of  Ohio ;  in  Ohio  H.  &  Ph.,  I,  pt.  2. 

Hayden. —  F.  V.  Hayden :  U.  S.  Geological  and  Geograph- 
ical Survey  of  the  Territories ;  Annual  Reports. 

Haywood. —  Haywood :  Natural  and  Aboriginal  History  of 
Tennessee  (1823). 

Hearne. —  Hearne :    Voyage  to  the  Northern  Ocean. 

Heckewelder. —  John  Heckewelder:  History,  Manners,  and 
Customs  of  the  Indian  Nations. 

Henderson. —  J.  G.  Henderson:  Aboriginal  Remains  near 
Naples,  Illinois;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1882. 

Henshaw. —  H.  W.  Henshaw :  Animal  Carvings  from  the 
Mississippi  Valley;  in  B.  E.  2. 

Henshaw,  Rings. —  H.  W.  Henshaw :  Perforated  Stones 
from  CalifoTnia;  in  B.  E.  Bui.  2. 

Henshaw,  Sinkers. —  H.  W.  Henshaw :  The  Aboriginal 
Relics  Called  "  Sinkers  "  or  "  Plummets  " ;  in  Jour.  Arch.,  I, 
No.  2. 

H.  &  G. —  Herndon  and  Gibbon:  Explorations  in  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Amazon. 

Hildreth. —  Hildreth :    Pioneer  History. 

Hildreth,  Floods.— S.  P.  Hildreth:  A  Brief  History  of  the 
Floods  in  the  Ohio  Valley;  in  Ohio  H.  &  Ph.,  I,  pt.  i. 

Hilgard. —  E.  W.  Hilgard:  On  the  Geology  of  Lower 
Louisiana;  in  Sm.  Cont.  23. 

Hill. —  Geo.  W.  Hill:  Antiquities  of  Northern  Ohio;  in 
Sm.  Rep.  1874. 

Hinde. —  Thomas  S.  Hinde;  in  Amer.  Pion.,  I. 

Hoare. —  Sir  Richard  Colte  Hoare :  The  Ancient  History 
of  North  Wiltshire. 


736  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Hoffman. —  W.  J.  Hoffman:  The  Menomini  Indians;  in 
B.  E.  14. 

Hoffman,  W.  J.— W.  J.  Hoffman:  The  Midi  'wiwin  of  the 
Ojibwa;  in  B.  E.  7. 

*  Holmes,  Fabrics. —  W.  H.  Holmes  :  Prehistoric  Textile 
Fabrics  of  the  United  States,  Derived  from  Impressions  on  Pot- 
tery ;  in  B.  E.  3. 

*  Holmes,  Implements. —  W.  H.  Holmes  :  Stone  Implements. 
oflhe  Tidewater  Province;  in  B.  E.  15. 

*  Holmes,  Ohio.—  W.  H.  Holmes :  Traces  of  Glacial  Man 
in  Ohio;  in  the  Archaeologist,  I. 

*  Holmes,  Pottery. —  W.  H.  Holmes :  Ancient  Pottery  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley;  in  B.  E.  4. 

*  Holmes,  Serpent. —  W.  H.  Holmes :  The  Serpent  Mound ; 
in  Science,  Dec.  31,  1886. 

*  Holmes,  Shell.— W.  H.  Holmes:  Art  in  Shell  of  the 
Ancient  Americans ;  in  B.  E.  2. 

Holmes,  Survey. —  W.  H.  Holmes  :  Geology  of  the  Yellow- 
stone Park;  Hayden,  1878,  vol.  2. 

*  Ho'lmes,  Textile  Art. —  W.  H.  Holmes  :  Prehistoric  Tex- 
tile Art  of  Eastern  United  States;  in  B.  E.  13. 

*  Holmes,  Traces. —  W.  H.  Holmes :  Traces  of  Glacial  Man 
in  Ohio ;  in  Jour.  Geol.,  I,  No.  2. 

*  Holmes,  Trenton. —  W.  H.  Holmes  :  Are  There  Traces  of 
Glacial  Man  in  the  Trenton  Gravels?;  in  Jour.  Geol.,  I,  i. 

Holub.—  E.  Holub ;  in  G.  B.  &  I.,  X. 

Hosea,  Ft.  A. —  L.  M.  Hosea:  Some  Facts  and  Considera- 
tions about  Fort  Ancient,  Warren  County,  Ohio;  in  Cin.    Jour.,. 

1,4- 

Hosea,  Mounds. —  L.  M.  Hosea :  A  Brief  Chapter  on  Sac- 
rificial Mounds;  in  Cin.  Jour,,  11,  i. 

Hough. —  Walter  Hough:  Fire-making  Apparatus  in  the 
U.  S.  National  Museum;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1888. 

Howard. —  Genl.  O.  O.  Howard :    The  Nez  Perce  Campaign., 

Howe. —  Henry  Howe :    Historical  Collections  of  Ohio. 

Hoy.—  Dr.  R.  P.  Hoy :    Who  Built  the  Mounds  ? 

H.  R.  25. —  Documents  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
25th  Congress,  second  session.  Operations  against  the  Seminoles 
and  Creeks. 

Hubbard. —  Bela  Hubbard  :    Memorials  of  a  Half-Century. 


Appendix,  *         737 

Hubbard,  Gardens. —  Bela  Hubbard :  Ancient  Garden  Beds 
of  Michigan;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  I,  i. 

Hubbard,  Relics. —  Bela  Hubbard:  Relics  in  Michigan;  in 
Amer.  Antiq.,  H,  3. 

Im  Thurn. —  Im  Thurn ;  in  G.  B.  &  I. 

Ind. —  Annual  Reports  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Indiana. 

*  Iroquois. —  Lewis  H.  Morgan :  League  of  the  Iroquois. 
Irving. —  Washington  Irving:     The  Adventures  of  Bonne- 
ville. 

Irving,  J.  T. —  J.  T.  Irving :   Indian  Sketches. 

*  Jesuits. —  Francis  Parkman :  The  Jesuits  in  North  Amer- 
ica. 

*  Jones. —  C.  C.  Jones :    Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians. 

*  Joseph  Jones. —  Dr.  Joseph  Jones. — Explorations  of  the 
Aboriginal    Remains  of  Tennessee;  in  Sm.  Cont.  XXII. 

Jour.  Arch. —  The  American  Journal  of  Archaeology. 
Jour.   Gin. — Journal  of  the  Cincinnati   Society  of   Natural 
History. 

Jour.  Geol. —  The  Journal  of  American  Geology. 

Kalm. —  Peter  Kalm:    Travels  into  America  (1772). 

Kinnicutt. — Leonard  P.  Kinnicutt:  Report  on  the  Meteoric 
Iron  from  the  Altar  Mounds  in  the  Little  Miami  Valley,  Ohio; 
in  Pea.  Mus.,  III. 

Kipp. — James  Kipp :  On  the  Accuracy  of  Catlin's  Account  of 
the  Mandan  Ceremonies;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1872. 

*  Knight. —  E.  H.  Knight :  A  Study  of  Savage  Weapons  at 
the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  1876;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1879. 

*  Lapham. —  I.  A.  Lapham:  The  Antiquities  of  Wisconsin; 
in  Sm.  Cont.  VII. 

Larkin. —  Frederick  Larkin,  M.  D. :  Ancient  Man  in  America. 
Lawson. — John  Lawson:    History  of  Carolina. 
Layard. — E.  L.  Layard ;  in  G.  B.  &  1. 

L.  &  C. — Lewis  and  Clark:  Expedition  to  the  Sources  of 
the  Missouri. 

Le  Conte. —  Joseph  Le  Conte :    On  the  Great  Lava  Flood  of 
the  Northwest;  in  Amer.  Jour.  S.  A.,  third  series,  VII,  40. 
47 


738       *  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Leland. —  Leland :    Fusang. 

Levering. —  Robert  E.  H.  Levering ;  in  Amer.  Pion.,  IL 

Lewis. —  T.  H.  Lewis:  Ancient  Fire-Places  on  the  Ohio; 
in  Amer.  Antiq.,  May,  1886. 

Lewis,  Fort. —  T.  H.  Lewis :  the  "  Old  Fort  "  Earthworks  of 
Greenup  County,  Kentucky ;    in  Jour.  Arch.,  Ill,  3  and  4. 

Lewis,  Gravel. —  H.  C.  Lewis :  The  Trenton  Gravel  and  its 
Relation  to  the  Antiquity  of  Man ;  in  Phil.  Acad.,  1880. 

Lichtenstein. —  Lichtenstein :  Travels  in  South  Africa,  II, 
p.  271. 

Long. —  Major  Stephen  H.  Long:  Second  Expedition  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

Long,  Rockies. —  Major  Stephen  H.  Long:  Expedition  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  1819  and  1820. 

Long,  St.  Peter's. —  Major  Stephen  H.  Long:  Expedition 
to  the  Source  of  St.  Peter's  River,  in  1823. 

Loskiel. —  Loskiel :  History  of  the  Mission  of  the  United 
Brethren  among  the  Indians  of  North  America  (1794). 

*  Lowe. —  C.  F.  Lowe :  Explorations  at  Madisonville ;  in 
Jour.  Gin.  III. 

Lowell. —  James  Russell  Lowell :     Literary  Essays. 

*  Lubbock. —  Sir  John  Lubbock :    Prehistoric  Times. 

Mackey. —  J.  W.  Mackey  :  Survivals  of  the  Stone  Age ;  in 
Amer.  Arch.  II,  April,  1878. 

Mag.    Amer.  Hist. —  Magazine  of  American  History. 

*  Mallery. —  Garrick  Mallery :  Pictographs  o-f  North  Ameri- 
can Indians;  in  B.  E.  10. 

*  Mankind.— E.  B.  Tylor:     Early  History  of  Mankind. 
Marsh. —  O.  C.  Marsh :  Description  of  an  Ancient  Sepulchral 

Mound  near  Newark,  Ohio ;  in  Amer.  Jour.  S.  A.,  second  series, 
XLII,  124. 

*  Mason,  Bows. —  O.  T.  Mason :  North  American  Bows,  Ar- 
rows, and  Quivers;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1893. 

*  Mason,  Migration.— O.  T.  Mason:  Migration  and  the 
Pood  Quest;  a  Study  in  the  Peopling  of  America;  in  Sm.  Rep. 

1894. 

*  Mason,  Travel. —  O.  T.  Mason :  Primitive  Travel  and 
'Transpo-rtation ;  in  Nat.  Mus.   1894. 


Appendix.  739 

Matson. —  John  S.  B.  Matson. — A  Mound  in  Hardin  County ; 
in  Cent.  Rep. 

Matthews. —  Dr.  Washington  Matthews :  The  Human  Bones 
in  the  Hemenway  Collection  in  the  United  States  Army  Medical 
Museum  at  Washington;  in  Mem.  N.  A.  Sci.,  VI.  7. 

Matthews,  W. —  Dr.  Washington  Matthews;  in  Sm.  Rep. 
1884. 

Mc Adams. —  William  Mc Adams :  Records  of  Ancient  Races 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

McFarland.—  R.  W.  McFarland :  Ancient  Work  near  Ox- 
ford, Ohio ;  in  O.  A.  H.,  I. 

*McGuire,  Drilling.— J.  D.  ]\IcGuire:  A  Study  of  the 
Primitive  Methods  of  Drilling;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1894. 

*  McGuire,  Hammer. —  J.  D.  McGuire :  The  Stone  Hammer 
and  its  Various  uses;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  IV,  Oct.  1891. 

*  McGuire,  Lapidary. —  J.  D.  McGuire :  Materials,  Appa- 
ratus, and  Processes  of  the  Aboriginal  Lapidary ;  in  Amer.  Anth., 
V,  April  1892. 

*  McGuire,  Pipes. —  J.  D.  McGuire :  American  Aboriginal 
Pipes  and  Smoking  Customs ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1897. 

McGuire,  Steatite.—  J.  D.  McGuire ;  in  Amer.  Nat.,  XVII. 

*  McLean.—  J.  P.  McLean :    The  Mound  Builders. 
McLean,    Blennerhassett. —  J.    P.    McLean:      Remains    on 

Blennerhassett's  Island,  Ohio  River;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1882. 

McLean,  Serpent. —  J.  P.  McLean:  The  Great  Serpent 
Mound;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  VII,  Jan'y.  1885. 

Mem.  N.  A.  Sci. —  Memoirs  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Science. 

Mercer. —  H.  C.  Mercer :    The  Lenape  Stone. 

Meredith. —  Rev.  H.  C.  Meredith:  Archaeology  of  Cali- 
fornia; in  Preh.  Impl. 

*  Mitchell.—  Arthur  Mitchell :     The  Past  in  the  Present. 
Mitchell,  D.  D. —  in  Schoolcraft,  Mandan,  p.  254. 
Mohr.— in  Sm.  Rep.  1881. 

*  Mooney. —  James  Moo-ney :  The  Ghost  Dance  Religion ; 
in  B.  E.  14. 

Mooney,  Cherokees. —  James  Mooney:  Cherokee  Mound- 
Building;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  II,  April  1889. 

Moore,  Ala. —  C.  B.  Moore:  Certain  Aboriginal  Remains 
OQ  the  Alabama  River. 


740  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Moore,  Duval. —  C.  B.  Moore:  Certain  River  Mounds  of 
Duval  County,  Florida. 

Moore,  Fla. — C.  B.  Moore:  Certain  Sand  Mounds  of  the 
St.  John's  River,  Florida,  part  2. 

*  Moorehead. —  W.  K.  Moorehead :    Primitive  Man  in  Ohio. 

*  Morgan. —  Lewis  H.  Morgan :  Houses  of  the  Mound- 
Builders  ;  chapter  IX  of  Houses  and  House  Life  of  the  American 
Abo-rigfines ;  in  N.  A.  Cont.  4. 

*  Morgan,  Migrations. —  Lewis  H.  Morgan :  Indian  Migra- 
tions ;  in  Beach. 

*  Morgan,  Periods. —  Lewis  H.  Morgan :  Ethnical  Periods ; 
in  A.  A.  A.  S.  1875. 

Morton. —  Samuel  G.  Morton :  Crania  Americana. 

Miiller. —  Max  Miiller:  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop, 

I,  P-  327. 

Murdoch. —  John  Murdoch:  Ethnological  Results  of  the 
Point  Barrow  Expedition;  in  B.  E.  9. 

Myers. —  Myers:  Remains  of  Lost  Empires. 

*  N.  A.  Cont. —  Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology. 
Nadaillac. —  Marquis  de  Nadaillac:  Prehistoric  America. 
N.  A.  Rev. —  The  Longevity  of  Trees;  in  North  American 

Review,  July  1844. 

Nation. —  The  Maories;  in  the  Nation,  LXII,  1604. 

*  Nat.  Mus. —  Reports  of  the  United  States  National 
Museum. 

N.  C. —  Geological  Survey  of  North  Carolina,  Annual 
Reports. 

Newberry,  Mining. —  John  S.  Newberry :  Ancient  Mining  in 
North  America ;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  XI,  May  1889. 

Newberry,  P.  S.  M. —  John  S.  Newberry:  Ancient  Civiliza- 
tion of  America;  in  P.  S.  M.,  June  1892. 

*  Nilsson. —  S.  Nilsson :  The  Stone  Age. 

*  O.  A.  H. —  Publications  of  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and 
Historical  Society ;  numbers  refer  to  the  volume. 

Ohio  H.  &  Ph. —  Transactions,  or  Journal,  of  the  Histor- 
ical and  Philosophical  Society  of  Ohio. 

*  Oregon  Trail. —  Francis  Parkman :  The  Oregon  Trail. 


Appendix.  741 

Overman. —  H.  W.  Overman:  Fort  Hill,  Ohio;  in  O.  A. 
H.,  I. 

Packard. —  R.  L.  Packard:  Pre-Columbian  Copper-Mining 
in  North  America ;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1892. 

Pac.  Ry. —  Report  of  Pacific  Railway  Survey. 

Palmer. —  Edward  Palmer;  in  Pea.  Mus.,  XL 

Payn. —  Dr.  Payn:  History  of  the  New  World  Called 
America. 

*■  Pea.  Mus. —  Annual  Reports  of  the  Peabody  Museum, 
of  Harvard  College. 

Peck.— J.  M.  Peck:  A  Gazetteer  of  Illinois  (1837). 

Peet. —  Stephen  D.  Peet ;  in  Amer.  Antiq. 

Peet,  Amer. —  Stephen  D.  Peet :  Prehistoric  America. 

Perkins. —  Archaeology  of  New  England;  in  Preh.  Impl. 

*  Petrie. —  W.  M.  Flinders-Petrie :  Races  and  Civilization ; 
in  Sm.  Rep.  1895. 

Phil.  Acad. —  Proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of 
Natural  Science. 

Pidgeon. —  William   Pidgeon:   Traditions  of  De-coo-dah. 

*  Pontiac. —  Francis   Parkman  :The   Conspiracy  of   Pontiac. 

*  Powers. —  Stephen  Powers :  Tribes  of  California ;  in  N.  A. 
Cont.  3. 

*  Preh.  Impl. —  W.  K.  Moorehead :  Prehistoric  Implements. 
Preh.  People. —  Marquis  de  Nadaillac:  Prehistoric  Peoples. 
P.  S.  M.—  Popular  Science  Monthly. 

Putnam,  Harness. —  F.  W.  Putnam :  Description  of  the 
Harness  Mound ;  in  Bost.  Soc,  XXIII. 

Putnam,  Iron.— F.  W.  Putnam:  Iron  from  the  Ohio 
Mounds;  in  Ant.  Soc,  II,  April  1883. 

Putnam,  Ohio. —  F.  W.  Putnam :  Prehistoric  Remains  in 
the  Ohio  Valley;  in  Century  Magazine,  March  1890. 

*  Putnam,  Serpent. —  F.  W.  Putnam :  Description  of  the 
Serpent  Mound;  in  Century  Magazine,  April   1890. 

Putnam,  XVL— F.  W.  Putnam;  in  Pea.  Mus.,  XVI  and 
XVII. 

Putnam,  XX.—  F.  W.  Putnam ;  in  Pea.  Mus.,  XX. 

Rau,  Cup-stones. —  Chas.  Rau :  Observations  on  Cup-stones ; 
in  N.  A.  Cont.  5. 


742  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Rau,  Drill. —  Chas.  Rau :  Aboriginal  Stone-drilling ;  in  Amer. 
Nat.,  XV,  7.     (Also  in  Sm.  Rep.  1868.) 

Read,  Arch. —  M.  C.  Read:  Archaeology  of  Ohio. 

Read,  Cup-stones. —  M.  C.  Read:  Cup-stones;  in  Amer. 
Arch.,  II,  Jan'y  1898. 

Read,  Shelter.— M.  C.  Read :  Exploration  of  a  Rock  Shelter 
in  Boston,  Summit  County,  Ohio;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  II,  3. 

Read,  Tablet.— M.  C.  Read:  The  Grave  Creek  Tablet;  in 
Amer.  Antiq.,  I,  3. 

Reade. —  John  Reade:  The  Literary  Faculty  of  the  Native 
Races  of  America ;  in  Proceedings  and  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Canada,  1884,  II,  sec.  2. 

Redding. —  B.  B.  Redding:  How  Our  Ancestors  in  the 
Stone  Age  Made  Their  Implements;  in  Amer.  Nat.,  XIII,  11. 

Regents. —  L.  H.  Morgan:  Report  to  the  Regents  of  the 
University  of  New  York. 

*  Roosevelt. —  Theodore  Roosevelt :  The  Winning  of  the 
West. 

*  Royce. —  C.  C.  Royce :  The  Cherokee  Nation  of  Indians ; 
in  B.  E.  5. 

Salisbury. —  R.  D.  Salisbury:  Notes  on  the  Dispersion  of 
Drift  Copper;  in  Transactions  of  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of 
Sciences,  VI. 

Schliemann. —  Schliemann :   Troja. 

Schnabel. —  Carl  Schnabel :  Handbook  of  Metallurgy. 

*Schoolcraft. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft:  The  American  In- 
dians. 

Schoolcraft,  Eries. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft:  Observations 
on  the  History  of  the  Ancient  Eries. 

Schoolcraft,  Grave  Creek. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft:  Obser- 
vations Respecting  the  Grave  Creek  Mound;  in  Trans.  Amer. 
Eth.,  I. 

*  Schoolcraft,  History. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft :  Historical 
and  Statistical  Information  Respecting  the  History,  Condition, 
and  Prospects  of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States. 

Schoolcraft,  Iroquois. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft:  Notes  on 
the  Iroquois. 

*  Schoolcraft,  Mandan. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft :  Origin  of 
the  Mandan  Tribe  and  Its  Stock  Affiliation. 


Appendix.  743 

Schoolcraft,  Mines. —  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft :  A  View  of  the 
Lead  Mines  of  Missouri. 

Schumacher. —  Paul   Schumacher;  in   Pea.   Mus.,  XL 

Sci.  Am. —  The  Age  of  Trees:  in  The  Scientific  American. 
Jan  y  25,  1896,  p.  58. 

Seaver. —  James  E.  Seaver:    Life  of  Mary  Jemison. 

Sec'y  War. —  Genl.  O.  O.  Howard :  Report  of  the  Pursuit  of 
Chief  Joseph;  in  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  1877,  L 

*  S.  &  D. —  Squier  and  Davis :  Ancient  Monuments  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley. 

*  Sellers,  Chipping. —  George  E.  Sellers  :  Observations  on 
Stone  Chipping;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1885. 

*  Sellers,  Pottery. —  George  E.  Sellers  :  Aboriginal  Pottery 
of  the  Salt  Springs,  Illinois;  in  P.  S.  M.,  Sept.  1877. 

Shaler. —  N.  S.  Shaler :    History  of  Kentucky. 
Shaler,  Mammoth. —  N.  S.  Shaler :    The  Time  of  the  Mam- 
moth ;  in  Amer.  Nat.,  IV,  3. 

Shea. —  Shea :    Early  Voyages  Up  and  Down  the  Mississippi^ 

*  Short. —  John  T.  Short :     North  Americans  of  Antiquity.. 
Simonds. —  Frederick  W.  Simonds :    The  Discovery  of  Iron 

Implements  in  an  Ancient  Mine  in  North  Carolina;  in  Amer. 
Nat.,  XV,  I. 

Sittig. —  Otto  Sittig :  Compulsory  Migrations  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean;  Sm.  Rep.  1895. 

*  Sm.  Cont. —  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge. 
(The  number  of  the  volume  follows.) 

Smith. —  Captain  John  Smith :  The  Generall  History  of 
Virginia,  New  England,  and  the  Summer  Isles. 

Smith,  G.  v.—  G.  V.  Smith :  The  Use  of  Flint  Blades  to 
Work  Pine  Wood;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1891. 

*  Sm.  Rep. —  Annual  Reports  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
(The  number  following  denotes  the  year  of  publication.) 

Snyder,  Bicaves. —  Dr.  J.  F.  Snyder:  Bicave  o-r  Discoidal 
Stones ;  in  Preh.  Impl. 

Snyder,  Disks. —  J.  F.  Snyder:  Buried  Deposits  of  Horn- 
stone  Disks ;  in  The  Archaeologist,  I,  Oct.  1893. 

Snyder,  Osages. —  J.  F.  Snyder :  Were  the  Osages  Mound 
Builders?;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1888. 


744  Archaeological  History  of   Ohio. 

Squier,  Algonquins. —  E.  G.  Squier :  Historical  and  Mytho- 
logical Traditions  of  the  Algonquins.  With  a  Translation  of 
the  Walum-Olum,  or  Bark  Record  of  the  Lenni-Lenape ;  in  Beach. 

"^  Squier,  N.  Y. —  E.  G.  Squier :  Aboriginal  Remains  of  the 
State  of  New  York;  in  Sm.  Cont.  2. 

Squier,  Serpent. —  E.  G.  Squier :     the  Serpent  Symbol. 

Starr. —  Frederick  Starr ;  A  Shell  Gorget  from  Mexico ;  in 
Dav.,  VI. 

Stebbins. —  Daniel  Stebbins;  in  Amer,  Pion.,  Oct.  1842. 

*  Stevens. —  E.  T.  Stevens :     Flint  Chips. 

Stinson. —  Floyd  Stinson,  M.  D. :  Mounds  and  Earthworks 
in  Vandenburg  County,  Indiana;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1881. 

Stoddard. —  Stoddard :    History  of  Louisiana. 

Stone. —  William  Stone :    Life  of  Joseph  Brant. 

Swank. —  James  M.  Swank :  History  of  the  Manufacture  of 
Iron  in  All  Ages. 

Sylvester. —  Dr.  John  E.  Sylvester:  The  Berlin  Tablet;  in 
Amer.  Antiq.,  I,  2. 

*  Symbolism. —  F.  W.  Putnam :  Symbolism  in  Ancient 
American  Art ;  in  A.  A.  A.  S.,  1895. 

Thatcher. —  B.  B.  Thatcher:  Indian  Traits. 

Thomas,  Origin. —  Cyrus  Thomas :  Origin  of  the  American 
Indians;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  XVI,  Jan'y.   1894. 

Thomas,  Problem. —  Cyrus  Thomas :  The  Problem  of  the 
Ohio  Mounds;  in  B.  E.  Bui.  8. 

Thruston. —  G.  P.  Thruston  :  Ancient  Society  in  Tennessee. 
The  Mound  Builders  Were  Indians;  in  Mag.  Am.  Hist.,  XIX, 
May  1888. 

*Thruston,  Tenn. —  G.  P.  Thruston :  Antiquities  of  Ten- 
nessee. 

Tomlinson. —  A.  B.  To-mlinson:  The  Grave  Creek  Mound; 
in  Amer.  Pion.,  II. 

Trans.  Amer.  Eth. —  Transactions  of  the  American  Ethno- 
logical Society. 

Trent. —  Captain  Trent's  Journal. 

Trumbull. —  Trumbull:  History  of  the  Indian  Wars. 

*  Tylor. —  E.  B.  Tylor :    Anthropology. 


Appendix.  745 

Vanegas. —  Michael  Vanegas :  A  Natural  and  Civil  History 
of  California. 

Vessels. —  Some  Prehistoric  Vessels;  in  P.  S.  M.,  May  1881. 

Von  Cotta. —  Bernhard  Von  Cotta :  Rocks  Classified  and 
Described. 

Wallace. —  A.  R.  Wallace:  A  Narrative  of  Travels  o-n  the 
Amazon  and  Rio  Negro. 

Webster. —  C.  L.  Webster:  Ancient  Mounds  in  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin ;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1887. 

Welch. —  A  Description  of  Prehistoric  Relics  Found  near 
Wilmington,  Ohio;  in  Amer.  Antiq.,  IV,  Oct.  1881. 

W.  H.  C. —  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections. 

Whittlesey,  Copper. —  Chas.  Whittlesey:  Ancient  Mining 
on  the  Shores  of  Lake  Superior;  in  Cin.  Jour.  I,  2. 

*  Whittlesey,  Inscriptions. —  Chas.  Whittlesey :  Rock  In- 
scriptions in  the  United  States;  in  W.  R.  H.,  No.  42. 

Whittlesey,  Kelly's. —  Chas.  Whittlesey:  Ancient  Earth- 
works— Northern  Ohio. — Mound  on  Kelly's  Island ;  in  W.  R.  H., 
No.  41. 

Whittlesey,  Mining. —  Chas.  Whittlesey :  Ancient  Mining  on 
the  Shores  of  Lake  Superior;  in  Sm.  Cont.  13. 

Whittlesey,  Relics. —  Chas.  Whittlesey :  Relics  of  Aboriginal 
Art  and  Their  Ethnological  Value ;  in  W.  R.  H.,  No.  52. 

Whittlesey,  Weapons. —  Chas.  Whittlesey :  On  the  Weapons 
and  ]\Iilitary  Character  of  the  Race  of  the  Mounds ;  in  Boston 
Mem.,  I,  pt.  4. 

Whittlesey,  Works. —  Chas.  Whittlesey :  Description  of 
Ancient  Works  in  Ohio;  in  Sm.  Cont.  3. 

Whymper. —  Whymper:    Alaska,  p.  250. 

*  Wickersham. —  James  Wickersham :  The  Origin  of  the 
Indians — The  Polynesian  Route;  in  Amer.  Antiq,,  XVI,  Nov. 
1894. 

^  Wilson. —  Thomas  Wilson :  Arrowpoints,  Spearheads,  and 
Knives  of  Prehistoric  Times ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1897. 

*  Wilson,  D. —  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson:     Prehistoric  Man. 

*  Winsor. —  Justin  Winsor :  Narrative  and  Critical  History 
O'f  America. 

Winsor,  W.  Mov. —  Justin  Winsor :  The  Westward  Move- 
ment. 


746  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

*  W.  K.  M.—  W.  K.  Moorehead :  Account  of  Explorations 
at  the  Hopewell  Group;  in  Antiq.,  I  and  II,  May  1877  to  Jan'y 
1898,  inclusive. 

*  Wood.—  J.  G.  Wood :  Natural  History  of  Mankind. 

*  Wright. —  G.  F.  Wright :  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period 
(1892  edition). 

Wright,  1893. —  G.  F.  Wright :  Evidences  of  Glacial  Man  in 
Ohio;  in  P.  S.  M.,  May,  1893. 

Wright,  1895. —  G.  F.  Wright:  New  Evidences  of  Glacial 
Man  in  Ohio;  in  P.  S.  M.,  Dec.  1895. 

*  Wright,  2nd. —  G.  F.  Wright :  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period ;, 
second  edition ;  preface. 

*  Wright,  4th. —  G.  F.  Wright :  Ice  Age  in  North  America,, 
fourth  edition;  preface. 

W.  R.  H. —  Western  Historical  Society  Tracts  (the  number 
of  the  tract  referred  to  follows ) . 

Wyeth. —  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth :  Indian  Tribes  of  the  South 
Pass  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Wyth. —  John  Wyth:  Graphic  Sketches  of  the  Virginia. 
Indians. 

Yaple. —  John  Yaple:  Survivals  of  the  Stone  Age;  in. 
Antiq.,  I. 

Yates. —  Yates:    Charm  Stones;  in  Sm.  Rep.  1886. 


Special  attention  is  called  to  the  following  papers  included 
in  the  above  titles,  but  not  mentioned  separately  in  the  list : — 

Aboriginal  Remains  in  the  Verde  Valley,  Arizona.  Mindeleff ; 
in  B.  E.  13. 

Ancient  Aboriginal  Trade  in  North  America.  Rau;  in  Sm. 
Rep.  1872. 

Archaeology  of  the  United  States.    Hayden ;  in  Sm.  Cont.  8.. 

Arrow,  The.    Gushing;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  VIII,  Oct.  1895. 

Arrows  and  Arrow-Makers ;  in  Amer.  Anth.,  IV,  Jan'y.  1891. 

Artificial  Deformation  of  Children  among  Savages  and  Civ- 
ilized People,  Notes  on  the:    Porter;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1887. 

Casa  Grande  Ruin,  Arizona.    Mindeleff;  in  B.  E.  13. 

Catlin  Indian  Gallery,  The  George;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1885. 

Central  Eskimo,  The.    Boas ;  in  B.  E.  6. 


Appendix.  747 

Ceremonial  Use  of  Tobacco,  The.  Hawkins;  in  P.  S.  M.^ 
June  1893. 

Circular,  Square,  and  Octagonal  Earthworks  of  Ohio,  The. 
Thomas;  in  B.  E.  Bui.  10. 

Cradles  of  the  American  Aborigines.  Mason ;  in  Nat.  Mus. 
1887. 

Ethno-Conchology ;  A  Study  of  Primitive  Money.  Stearns; 
in  Nat.  Mus.  1887. 

Human  Beast  of  Burden,  The.    Mason ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1887. 

Israelite  and  Indian.     Mallery;  in  Amer.  Anth. 

Mound  Explorations  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology ;  in  B.  E.  12. 

Mortuary  Customs  of  the  North  American  Indians.  Yarrow ; 
in  B.  E.  I. 

Omaha  Dwellmgs,  Furniture  and  Implements.  Dorsey;  in 
B.  E.  13. 

Origin  and  Development  of  Form  and  Ornament  in  Ceramic 
Art.     Holmes;   B.   E.  4. 

Outlines  of  Zuni  Creation  Myths.    Cushing;  in  B.  E.  13. 

Pottery  of  the  Ancient  Pueblos.     Holmes ;  in  B.  E.  4. 

Prehistoric  Art;  or  the  Origin  of  Art  as  Manifested  in  the 
Works  of  Prehistoric  Man.    Wilson ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1896. 

Primitive  American  Armor.    Hough ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1893. 

Shawnees,  The.    Royce;  in  B.  E. 

Story  of  a  Mound,  The ;  or.  The  Shawnees  in  Pre-Columbian 
Times.    Thomas  ;  in  Amer.  Anth.  IV,  April  and  July  1891. 

Study  of  Pueblo  Architecture,  A,     Mindleleff,  B.  E.  8, 

Swastika,  The.    Wilson ;  in  Nat.  Mus.  1894. 

The  following  works  should  also  be  consulted. — 

Century  of  Dishonor,  A.    Helen  Hunt  Jackson. 
Cherokees  in  Pre-Columbian  Times,  The.    Thomas. 
Incidents  of  Travel  in  Yucatan.    Stephens. 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  North  American  Ethnology. 
Thomas. 

Life  01  Tecumseh.     Benjamin  Drake. 

Mastodon,  Mammoth  and  Man.     McLean, 

Myths  of  the  New  World.     Brinton. 

Parkman's  Works,  which  should  be  read  in  this  order : — 

Pioneers  of  France. 

Jesuits  in  North  America. 


748  Archaeological  History  of  Ohio. 

Discovery  of  the  Great  West. 
Old  Regime  in  Canada. 

Frontenac  and  New  France  under  Louis  XlVth. 
A  Half-Century  of  Conflict. 
Montcalm  and  Wolfe. 
Conspiracy  of  Pontiac. 
Peru,  E.  G.  Squier. 


In  the  first  volume  of  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  His- 
tory of  America  may  be  found  much  condensed  information  relat- 
ing to  Mexico  and  Peru.  The  chapter  on  Paleolithic  Man,  by 
Haynes,  is  forcibly  written  but  we  cannot  say  that  the  facts 
always  bear  him  out  in  his  conclusions.  The  bibliography  of  this 
volume  is  very  full,  and  the  reader  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  sub- 
ject further  than  is  possible  with  the  list  here  given,  can  do  no 
better  than  to  take  Winsor  as  his  guide. 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  cairns  near,  392. 

Ability  of  Mound  Builders  in  stone-carv- 
ing over-rated,  605. 

Aborigines  of  America: — Theories  as  to 
origin,  31;  origin  unknown,  42;  races 
to  whom  attributed,  40;  native  to 
America,  41;  of  different  stocks,  105; 
possible  routes  of  immigration,  36; 
earliest  home  in  region  about  Puget 
Sound,  47;  conditions  of  early  exis- 
tence, 43;  summary  of  literature  con- 
cerning origin,  34;  comparison  of  dif- 
ferent stocks,  147;  summary  of  theories 
as  to  origin  and  migration,  146. 

Aborigines  of  Tennessee : — Character  of 
remains,  70.  Comparison  with  re- 
mains in  Ohio,  71. 

Abury,    or   Stonehenge,    England,   45-46. 

Acreage  necessary  for  a  hunting  tribe,  79. 

Accumulation  of  soil,   rate  of,  130. 

Accuracy  of  geometrical  enclosures 
claimed,    55-61. 

Adams  county  mounds,  380. 

Adelphi,    mounds    near,    339. 

Age  of  earthworks,  104;  of  prehistoric 
copper   working,    709. 

Agricultural  mounds  of  Arkansas  and 
Missouri,  90-105. 

Allegwi,   see  Tallegwi. 

Alligator  mound,  see  Opossum  effigy. 

Alphabet,  Cherokee,  504. 

Altars:— 307-344-346-349-352-385;  at  Har- 
ness's, true  nature  of,  361;  at  Frank- 
fort, 342;  at  Lowell,  339;  at  Mound 
City,  very  large,  351;  paved  with  peb- 
bles, 353;  how  made,  308-343;  remains 
on,   309. 

Altar  mounds,  304. 

America: — easily  reached  from  Asia,  40; 
people  claimed  as  settling,  40;  reached 
at  a  remote  period,  41. 

American  Indians: — earliest  lines  of  mi- 
gration, 47;  relative  degrees  of  ad- 
vancement in   culture,   147. 

Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley   (title);    see  Squier  and  Davis. 

Anomalous  structures: — The  Cross,  Picka- 
way county,  295;  Stone  work  on 
Black  Run,  Ross  county,  295;  Tre- 
foil, near  Bainbridge,  297. 


Antlers  of  wood  covered  with  copper,  345. 

Arch  of  stone  in   grave,   404. 

Area  occupied  by  Mound  Builders,  86. 

Arrow-heads: — how  made,  636;  time  re- 
quired to  make,  643;  how  attached 
to  shaft,  675;  names  of  parts,  633; 
size  of,  646;  bases  of  certain  forms 
always  polished,  647;  shapes  for  war 
and  for  hunting,  656;  blunt,  666;  made 
of  bone,  679;  See,  also,  flints  and 
flint  implements. 

Artistic  sense  of  Mound  Builders,  604- 
605;    greatly    over-estimated,    605. 

Ash    Cave,    Hocking   county,    415. 

Ashes   of   Mound   Builders,   320. 

Ash-pits:— at  Madison ville,  406;  corn  in. 
406;  skeletons  in,  406;  of  common  oc- 
currence, 409;  used  by  modern  In- 
dians, 409. 

Ashtabula  county  enclosures,  227. 

Asian  races  may  easily  reach  America,  40. 

Asian  vessels  wrecked  on  American  coast, 
36. 

Athens,   circles  and  mounds  near,   221. 

Athens  county,  mounds  at  Wolf  Plains, 
335. 

Authors  cited,   729. 

Authors  of  works  on  archaeology,  Peet's 
catalogue  of,   59. 

Axes:  see  stone  axes,  also  celts. 

Aztalan  work  in  Wisconsin,  97. 

Aztecs,   pipes  not  used  by,  52. 

Bainbridge,  works  near,  206;  Trefoil,  298. 

Banner   stones,   566;   classification  of,   267.. 

Barbarians  need  much  territory,  81. 

Barbarism,  whites  returning  to,  499. 

Barnesville  rock  inscriptions,  418. 

Baum's,  near  Bourneville: — enclosures^ 
206;    mound,    347. 

Bear  effigy  opposite  Portsmouth,  295. 

Behring's    Strait,    travel   across,    38. 

Berlin  Tablet,  582. 

Beveled  flints,  673;  used  as  knives  or 
skinners,  675;  bevel  mostly  in  one  di- 
rection, 674. 

Bibliography,   729. 

Big  Bottom,  near  Waverly,  graded  way> 
278. 

Bird  shaped  stones,  569. 


(749) 


750 


Index. 


Blackwater  works,  Ross  county,  202. 

£lennerhassett's  Island,  shell  heaps  on, 
413. 

Blue  Ridge,  copper  found  in,  711. 

Boat  making  without  iron   tools,   517. 

Bone:— arrow  heads,  679;  fish  hooks,  679; 
perforators,  679;  scrapers,  679;  use  of 
in   cultivating  soil,    678. 

Bones,  see  human  bones,  and  skulls, 

Bcurneville: — works  near,  206;  ellipse, 
217;  large  mound,  347;  graded  way, 
278. 

Bricks: — at  Aztalan,  98;  true  nature  of, 
100;  of  Mound  Builders,  460;  sun- 
dried,  460. 

Brinton,  the  Lenape  tradition,  436. 

Brown  county,  graves  in,  380. 

Brownsville,  Licking  county,  mounds 
near,   331. 

Buffalo: — age  of  in  Ohio  valley,  115;  re- 
mains in  mounds,   113. 

Builders   of   hill-top    forts,    265. 

Buildings: — of  stone  in  Missouri,  64;  on 
mounds,  310. 

Bunts,   666. 

Burial  Mounds,  318. 

Burial: — of  property,  reasons  for,  317; 
of  skeletons,  323-334-385;  of  the  slain, 
315. 

Burials: — in  rock  shelters,  415;  number  of 
in  a  century,  412;  variations  in  man- 
ner of,   412. 

Burned  earth :  —  at  Aztalan,  miscalled 
bricks,  98;   depth  of,  307. 

Burning  at  stake  by  Mound  Builders, 
evidence  of,   374. 

Butler  county :— enclosures,  214-261-265; 
error  in  survey,  215;  hill-top  forts, 
257-263;  graded  way  near  Carlisle,  279; 
mound  with  stone  graves,  383;  mounds 
in  close   group,    293. 

Butterfly   gorgets,    568. 

Caches  of  flint  implements:— 630;  why 
made,  631;  unfinished  arrows,  etc.,  632. 

Caesar's  creek,  artificial  terraces  on,  near 
Waynesville,   281. 

Cairns  in  Brown  county  and  in  Kentucky: 
—392;  made  of  slabs,  392;  containing 
stone  arch,  404;  due  to  unknown  tribe, 
405. 

Carlisle,  Butler  county,  graded  way  near, 
279. 

Carter  county,  Kentucky,  flint  in,  625. 

Carving:— elaborate,  with  stone  and  shell, 
516;  on  bones  from  the  Hopewell 
mound,  49.* 

Carvings  of  the  Mound  Builders: — over- 
rated, 605;  true  nature  of,  610;  errors 
in  naming  effigy  pipes,  608. 


Catalogue: — of    archaeological    writers    by 

Peet,  59;  of  earthworks  by  Bureau  of 

Ethnology,   102. 

Cave  dwellings,   see  rock  shelters. 

Celts: — forms      of,      526;      handles,      how 

fastened,   530;    hematite,    532;    manner 

of  use  indicated  by  form  of  edge,  536. 

"Cemetery     Mound":— at     Marietta,     337; 

at  Mount  Vernon,  329. 
Cemeteries: — at    Madisonville,    406;    else- 
where, 412. 
Central  government  among  Mound  Build- 
ers, 66. 
Central   Ohio,   mounds  in,  324. 
Cereals  and  vegetables  raised  by  Indians, 

479. 
Ceremonial  stones: — 561;  of  flint,  672. 
Chahta-Muskokecs     as     Mound     Builders, 

449. 
Charcoal    in    mounds,    large    amount    of, 

332-355. 
Charleston,    West    Virginia: — enclosures, 

173;   mounds,   328. 
Cherokee  alphabet,  adequacy  of,  504. 
Cherokees: — as    mound    builders,    444-466- 
470;  of  Huron-Iroquois  stock,  439;  pos- 
sible    descendants     of     the     Tallegwi, 
436-437;  migrations  of,  444. 
Chief   Joseph: — campaign,    497;    surrender 

speech,  498. 
Chillicothe: — enclosures,      190;      mounds 

near,  348. 
Chipped  stone,  see  flint  implements. 
Chung-kee,   game  of,   551. 
Chung-kee  stones,    see   discoidal  stones. 
Cincinnati: — remains     on     site     of,     212; 
mounds    at,    383;     contents    of    large 
mound   at,   212. 
Cincinnati  tablet,  50-383-582;  see,  also,  en- 
graved tablets. 
Circles :— near     Bainbridge,      206;      near 
Athens,    221;    at    Circleville,    208;     at 
Hopetown,    193;    at    Newark,    168;    at 
Harness's,  186;  correct  survey  at  Har- 
ness's, 187;  incomplete,  at  Chillicothe, 
190;  symmetrical,  at  Baum's,  206;  sym- 
metrical,   at     High     Banks,     190;     as- 
sumed "perfect,"  186;  concentric,  with 
mound,   near   mouth   of  Tygart  river, 
176;  how  to  construct,  160. 
Circleville: — enclosures,    208;    mounds    at, 
341;     reported    modern    objects     from 
mound,  456;   refutation  of  report,  457. 
Cities,    not   located    on    Mound    Builders' 

sites,  80. 
Civilization: — claimed    for    Mound    Build- 
ers, 61;   dissenting  opinions,  68. 
Clark  county,  Indiana,  stone  fort  reported 

in,   65. 
Clark's  works,  Ross  county,  see  Hopewell. 


Index. 


751 


Clay  walls  and  floor  of  aboriginal  dwell- 
ing, 460. 

Clerment  county: — complicated  works  in 
212;  the  "Gridiron,"  214;  enclosures, 
212;  graded  way  at  Turner's,  211; 
mounds,  381. 

■Cleveland,  enclosures,   near,  227. 

•Cloth,  various  patterns  from  mounds,  697. 

Coleraine  work,  Hamilton  county,  214. 

Communal   burial,   323. 

Comparison  of  Mound  Builders  with  mod- 
ern   Indians,   425. 

Comparison  of  Ohio  and  New  York  earth- 
works, 235. 

■Concretions; — at  Spruce  Hill,  244;  in 
snake  den  mounds,  341. 

Cones,  559. 

Conjoined  mounds,   293. 

Conneaut,  enclosures  near,  227. 

Construction  of  mounds: — 319-335;  not 
continuous,  355;  time  and  labor  re- 
quired, 337. 

•Copper.  Source  of  material: — in  glacial 
drift,  706;  ancient  mines  in  Michi- 
gan, 706;  difficulty  of  reaching,  92; 
methods  of  aboriginal  excavation,  708- 
710;  age  of  mines,  709;  mined  by  res- 
ident tribes  and  supplied  by  them  to 
others,  93-707-716;  deposits  in  the  Blue 
Ridge  mountains,  711. 

Copper.  Method  of  working: — worked 
cold  or  hot,  712;  hardened  by  beat- 
ing, 712;  smelting,  713;  difficult  to 
cast,  713-714;  tempered  or  hardened, 
705;  sheets  made  by  rolling,  726. 

•Copper.  Wrought  objects:— from  mounds, 
relatively  small  in  amount,  93;  im- 
plements and  ornaments,  714;  "spools" 
or  ear-ornaments,  717;  defaced  orna- 
ments from  Fort  Ancient,  716;  great 
quantities  and  intricate  patterns  from 
Hopewell  mounds,  718;  attributed  to 
Europeans,  719;  complicated  designs 
in  all  stages  of  work  from  Hopewell's, 
725;  of  aboriginal  fabrication,  725; 
modern  duplicates  by  aboriginal 
methods  and  appliances,  727;  "eagle," 
from  Peoria,  Illinois,  719;  plates  of 
Mexican  design  from  Georgia,  722; 
comparative  analyses  of  specimens 
from  mounds  and  from  European 
sources,  725. 

■Cores   of  flint,   668. 

Com: — amount  of  in  Indian  towns,  480; 
from  mounds,  73;  in  ash-pits,  Madison- 
ville,  406. 

Coshocton  county,   flint  in,  624. 
Crania,  see  skulls. 

Cremation,  320-336-339-341-349-372-381-382. 

-Cross,  the,    Pickaway   county,    295. 


Cruelty: — among  higher  races,  488;  com- 
mon to  all  peoples,  488;  a  natural  trait, 
489;  of  Indians,  486;  of  whites  toward 
Indians,  490. 

Culture  stages,  75;  Mound  Builders'  place 
in,  61. 

Cup  made  from  human  skull,  357. 

Cup-stones:— abundance  of,  540;  found 
everywhere,  540;  variations  in  form 
and  size,  541;  conjectures  as  to  pur- 
pose of,  541;  for  use  in  fire-making, 
545;  not  for  cracking  nuts  on,  544. 

Curved  flints  for  fishing,  676. 

Cusick's  tradition,  437;  may  apply  to 
Scioto  valley,   442. 

Cuyahoga  county,  enclosures  in,  227. 

Davenport  tablets,  580. 

Dayton :— enclosure  six  miles  from,  215; 
hill-top  fort  near,  265. 

Deeply  buried  objects: — iron  horse-shoe, 
iron  wedge,  and  axe-marks.  Marietta, 
25;  sea-shells,  Portsmouth,  25;  pottery, 
Shawneetown,  25;  thimble,  Waynes- 
ville,  25;  iron  hatchet,  hewn  stone, 
brick,  brick  hearth,  Louisville,  25-26; 
flints,  Georgia  and  Virginia,  26;  tab- 
lets, Piqua,  26;  stump,  with  axe-marks, 
Chillicothe,  26;  boiler  and  brass  ob- 
ject, Franklinton,  26;  fire-places,  Ports- 
mouth, 27. 

Defensive  works:— 225;  on  hills,  238; 
Spruce  Hill,  242;  of  Indians,  charac- 
ter of,   236. 

Definition  of  terms: — flint  implements, 
633;  stone  axes,  522;  working  in  flint, 
632. 

Dense  population  impossible  to  barbar- 
ians, 81. 

Depth  to  which  earth  will  burn,  307. 

Detroit,  mounds  in  vicinity  of,  439. 

Detroit  River,  not  the  crossing  point,  of 
Lenape  tradition,  439. 

Diiferent  tribes  builders  of  the  various 
classes  of  earthworks,  267. 

Dighton  Rock,  424. 

Discoidal  stones: — large  or  rough,  549;  as 
spindle  weights,  550;  for  digging- 
sticks,  550;  polished,  551;  possible  uses 
of  553. 

Disks,    see   discoidal  stones. 

Disparity  of  troops  and  warriors  in  Sem- 
inole war,   496. 

Distance  earth  need  be  carried  in  mound 
building,  339. 

Diversity  of  objects  from  mounds,  94. 

Dogs,  skeletons  of  in  mounds,  323. 

Double  mounds:— in  Hardin  county,  323; 
in    Pike    county,    376. 

Dressing  skins  with  stone  tools,  520. 


752 


Index. 


Drilling:— methods  of,  657;  tools  for,  657; 
experiments  in  with  primitive  appli- 
ances, 660;  rate  of  progress,  659-663 

Dublin,    enclosures   near,    221. 

Dunlap  works,  Ross  county,  199. 

Eagle,  of  copper,  from  Peoria,  Illinois,  719. 

Early  notices  of  Ohio  mounds  and  Mound 
Builders,    54. 

Earth  in  mounds  and  embankments: — 
character  of,  214;  "carried  from  a  dis- 
tance," 82-160-339. 

Earthworks: — catalogue  of,  by  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  102;  due  to  various  tribes, 
267;  age  of,  104;  for  public  use  and  of 
public  construction,  159;  on  upper  Mis- 
souri river,  102;  at  Evansville,  In- 
diana, 96;  at  Aztalan,  Wisconsin,  97. 

Effigy  mounds: — In  Ohio,  the  serpent,  282; 
the  opossum,  291;  at  Newark,  292;  the 
tapir,  294;  the  bear,  295.  In  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin,  91-110-282. 

Effigy  pipes: — skill  in  carving,  511-604;  pos- 
sibly totems,  606;  attributed  to  Eu- 
ropean work,  587;  not  made  by  white 
men,  588;  manner  of  making,  586; 
comparison  of  Ohio  and  New  York 
specimens,  601.  From  Mound  City: 
—352;  description  of,  589;  material  of, 
602;  errors  in  naming  the  animals 
portrayed,  608. 

Elaborate  carvings  attributed  to  Euro- 
peans, 5S7. 

Elephant  mound  in  Wisconsin,  110. 

Elephant  pipes  from  Iowa,  110. 

Ellipse: — near  Bourneville,  217;  near 
Piqua,   221. 

Eloquence,    Indian,    503. 

Elyria  shelter  cave,  415. 

Embankments: — character  of  earth  in,  214; 
palisades  on,  217. 

Emotion,  apparent  lack  of  among  Indians, 
504. 

Enclosures  of  Ohio.  So-called  "geomet- 
ric enclosures": — theories  as  to  pur- 
pose and  uses,  149;  classification  of, 
149;  mythical  basis  of  classification, 
152;  Pueblo  theory  of  Morgan,  154; 
fatal  objection  to  Morgan's  theory, 
155;  not  for  religious  rites,  151;  not 
for  exhibitions,  152;  not  for  game  pre- 
serves, 152;  probably  for  protection  to 
villages,  153;  not  at  centers  of  mod- 
ern population,  209;  genesis  of,  on 
basis  of  traditions,  441;  geometric  ac- 
curacy of  asserted,  55-61-62;  not  of 
accurate  proportions,  209;  no  mathe- 
matical skill  necessary  for  construc- 
tion of,  160;  how  laid  out,  160;  how  to 
construct   a   square,    161;    an    octagon, 


162;  error  in  survey,  Butler  county, 
215;  distribution  of  types,  101. 

Enclosures  of  Ohio.  Minor  and  irregu- 
lar enclosures:  —  220-225;  purpose  of, 
220;  for  defense,  232-234;  similar  to  one 
in  Fiji,  158;  differences  between  those 
in  northern  and  those  in  southern 
Ohio,  233;  one  of  northern  type  in 
Pickaway  county,  235;  purpose  of  those 
in  northern  Ohio,  233;  compared  with 
enclosures  in  New  York,  235;  with 
known  Iroquois  remains,  452;  with 
Mandan  village  walls,  452;  probably 
not  due  to  builders  of  "geometric" 
earthworks,  233. 

Enclosures  on  high  hills,  238. 

Enclosures,  localities  of  typical: — Athens,. 
221;  Bainbridge,  206;  Black  water,  202; 
Bourneville,  206-217;  Butler  county, 
214;  Cedar  Banks,  196;  Charleston, 
West  Virginia,  173;  Chillicothe,  190; 
Cincinnati,  212;  Circleville,  208;  Cler- 
mont county,  212;  Cleveland,  227; 
Conneaut,  227;  Dublin,  221;  Dunlap's,. 
199;  Frankfort,  190;  Glenford,  248; 
Greene  county,  226;  Hamilton  county,, 
212-214;  Harness's,  184;  High  Bank, 
188;  Hopetown,  190;  Hopewell's,  204; 
Junction  group,  202;  Kelly's  Island,. 
231;  Lorain  county,  227;  Marietta,  171; 
Montgomery  county,  215;  Mound  City,. 
198;  Norwalk,  226;  Pike  county,  179; 
Piqua,  221;  Portsmouth,  173;  Spruce 
Hill,  242;  Toledo,  227;  Tygart  river,, 
178;  Worthington,  217. 

Enclosures,  minor,  position  of  entrance,  220. 

Enclosures,   see,  also,  earthworks. 

Engraved  shells: — 687;  from  Mexico,  49. 

Engraved  stones,  see  inscribed  tablets. 

Entrance  to  minor  enclosures,  position  of,, 
220. 

Erosion  by  wind  and  rain  as  a  factor  in 
determining  age  of  earthworks,  130. 

European  objects: — from  a  mound  in  Mis- 
sissippi, 448;  not  found  in  Ohio 
mounds,  471. 

European  origin  claimed  for  aboriginal 
work,   587. 

Evansville,  Indiana,  mound  group  of 
southern  type,  96;  resemblance  of  to 
work  at  Aztalan,   97. 

Extent  of   Mound   Builders'  territory,   86. 

Extent  of  aboriginal  traffic,  94. 

Fabrics,  697. 

Faithfulness  and  loyalty  of  Indians,  500. 

Figures    incised    or    pecked    on    cliffs    and 

boulders;  see  rock  inscriptions. 
Fiji   Island  enclosure  similar  to  those   of 

Ohio,  158. 


Index, 


753 


"Fire-places,"  deeply  buried  near  Ports- 
mouth, 27;  entirely  of  natural  forma- 
tion, 28. 

Fire,  evidence  of  in  walls  at  Foster's 
fort,  256;  at  Spruce  Hill,  244. 

Fishing  with  flint  bait-holders,  666. 

Fish  hooks  of  bone,  679. 

Flaked  or  chipped  objects,  see  flint  im- 
plements. 

Flexibility  of  Indian  languages,  502. 

Flint:— best  working  condition  of,  621-624; 
caches  of  worked  objects,  630;  how 
made  into  implements,  636;  manner 
of  occurrence,  619;  minerals  included 
in  the  term,  618;  more  easily  worked 
when  fresh,  621-624-634;  much  tougher 
when  oiled,   624;  traffic  in,  627. 

Flint  arrow-heads  or  knives,  only  two  pri- 
mary forms,  645;  how  mounted  in 
shafts  or  handles,   675. 

Flint  Implements: — 618;  how  used,  645 
beveled,  673;  ceremonial  objects,  672 
cores,  668;  cores  not  for  use,  670 
disks  at  Hopewell's,  628;  drills,  657 
fish-bait  holders,  666;  flakes,  670: 
hatchets,  cutting  wood  with,  520 
piercing  tools,  665;  scrapers,  667;  ser- 
rated, 673;  some  queer  suggestions  as 
to  form  and  use,  676. 

Flint  quarries: — Carter  county,  Kentucky, 
625;  Coshocton  county,  624;  Kanawha 
valley.  West  Virginia,  626;  Licking 
county,  619;  Perry  county,  J)25;  Wy- 
andotte cave,  Indiana,  626;  various 
other  localities,   627. 

Flint  Ridge,  Licking  county: — amount  of 
excavation,  621;  methods  of  quarrying, 
622;  difficulty  of  reaching  the  stratum, 
622;  distance  to  which  the  stone  was 
carried,  627;  diversity  in  color  and 
texture  of  the  flint,  619;  stone  en- 
closure, with  included  mounds,  on,  261. 

Flint  working: — definition  of  terms,  632; 
reducing  rough  blocks,  623;  flaking, 
634-671;  arrow-making,  632;  making 
large  implements,  639. 

Floods  in  the   Ohio   river,   124. 

"Flues"  in  a  mound  near  Reading,  384. 

Food  of  primitive  races,   47. 

Food  supply,  difficulty  of  procuring  among 
hunting   tribes,   477. 

Foreign  articles  in  mounds,  94. 

Forests,  see  trees. 

Fortified  hill  tops,    238. 

Fort  Ancient:— 239;  artificial  terraces,  281; 
defaced  copper  ornaments  from,  TlB; 
underground  passage,  72;  village  sites 
at  different  levels  on  river  banks,  410. 

*48 


Fort    at    Foster's,    Warren    county,    25ft 

(burned  earth  in  walls). 
Fort  at  Glenford,  248. 
Fort  at  Granville,  259. 
Forts   near  Hamilton,  257-261. 
Fort  Hill,  Highland  county,  244. 
Fort  Miami,  near  North  Bend,  Hamilton 

county,  254. 
Fort  at  Spruce  Hill,  242. 
Fortifications,     similarity     of    in     various 

states,  232. 
Foster's,    Warren    county,    enclosure,    of 

burned  earth  and  stone,  256. 
Frankfort,  enclosures  at,  190;  mounds  at, 

342. 
Franklin  county  enclosures,  217. 
Fraudulent  specimens,  572. 
Funnel-shaped  excavations  or  pits,  414. 

Garden  beds,  89-105. 

Geometric  and  hill-top  enclosures  not  of 
same  character,  267^ 

Geometric   enclosures,    see  enclosures. 

Glacial  deposits  utilized  as  burial  places,, 
323-341. 

Glacial  drift.  Character  of  at: — Brilliant,. 
19;  Madison  ville,  16;  New  London, 
20;  Warsaw,  IS.  Implements  reported 
from  at:— Brilliant,  19;  Loveland,  16; 
Madisonville,  16;  Newcomerstown,  17; 
New  London,  19;  Warsaw,  18;  Tren- 
ton, New  Jersey,  7.  Rearrangement  of 
by  floods,  22.  Implements  found  in: 
— may  be  quite  modern,  22;  belong  to 
closing  stage  of  deposition,  23;  pos- 
sibility of  deception,  23;  difficulty  of 
accounting  for,  24;  evidence  not  sat- 
isfactory, 23;  liability  of  error  in  ob- 
servation, 24;  copper  found  in,  706; 
unbroken  sliding  of,  21.  See,  also. 
Deeply  buried  objects,  25. 

Glacial  man: — in  Europe,  6;  in  America, 
7;  in  Ohio,  15;  see,  also,  Glacial  drift, 

Glenford    fort,    248. 

Gold  in  mounds,  385. 

Good  traits  of  Indians,  500. 

Gorgets: — 564;  theories  as  to  use,  565; 
made   of  shell,  686. 

Gouges,  532. 

Governmental  injustice   to  Indians,   491. 

Graded  ways,  so-called,  at  or  near: — 
Bourneville,  219-278;  Carlisle,  279; 
High  Bank,  280;  Madisonville,  278; 
Marietta,  272;  Newark,  278;  Piketon, 
274;  Piqua,  274;  Richmonddale,  273; 
Turner's,  211-271;  Waverly,  278.  Those 
reported  mostly  natural  formations, 
280 ;  actual  passage-ways  overlooked,  280. 


754 


Index, 


Granville,  hill  top  enclosure  near,  259. 
Gravel  layer  on  top  of  mounds,  349-359-361, 
Grave  Creek,  West  Virginia,  mound,  324; 

possible  evidence  of  recent  origin,  327. 
Grave  Creek  tablet,  582. 
Graves:— made  at  random,  413;  reason  for 

confusion,  413;  found  everywhere,  412; 

under     mounds,      321-377-378;      largest 

ever  discovered,  378. 
Greene  county  enclosure,  226. 
"Gridiron,"  the,  in  Clermont  county,  214. 
Grooved  axes,   not  found  in  mounds,  514. 

See,  also  J  stone  axes. 

Hafting  axes,  celts  and  adzes,  530. 

Hale  on  Cusick's  and  the  Lenape  tradi- 
tions, 437. 

Hamilton  county: — artificial  terraces  at 
Red  Bank,  281;  Fort  Miami,  254; 
graded  way  at  Madisonville,  278; 
mounds,  383;  remains  at  Cincinnati, 
212. 

Hammerstones,  545. 

Hardening  copper,  705. 

Hardin  county  mound,  323. 

Hardness,  relative,  of  different  minerals, 
603. 

Harness  enclosures,  184;  mounds,  359. 

Hatchets,  see  celts. 

Heckewelder,  the  Lenape  tradition,  432. 

Hematite  celts,  532. 

Hemispheric  stones,  559. 

Hickory  nuts,  great  quantities  used  by 
Indians,  543;  how  prepared,  543. 

High  Banks: — graded  way,  280;  enclos- 
ures,  188;   small  circles,   225. 

Highland  county.    Fort  Hill,   244. 

Hill  top  enclosures  or  forts: — 238;  with  ex- 
terior ditch,  259-261;  perhaps  not  due 
to  Mound  Builders,  267;  possible  build- 
ers of,  268;  remote  from  fertile  lands, 
267;  time  required  to  build,  266. 

Hocking  county   mounds,    339. 

Hoes:— of  bone,  678;  of  shell,  684. 

Holes  in  mounds,   343. 

Holes  under  mounds,  331-356-364-368-371- 
381-384. 

Honesty  among  Indians,   500. 

Hopetown  enclosures,  190;  not  defensive, 
193;   correct  survey  of,  195. 

Hopewell's:— enclosures,  204;  mounds,  343; 
copper  from,  718;  flint  disks  from,  628; 
symbolic  carving  on  human  bones 
from,    49. 

House  refuse  in  mounds,  335. 

House  site  covered  by  mound,  347-379-380- 
381. 

How  mounds  were  built,  319-335. 

Human  bones:— Age  of,  115-117;  condition 
of  under  ground,  115. 


Human  sacrifices,  309. 

Human  skull,  cup  made  from,  357. 

Humerus,  perforated,  144. 

"Hump-backed"  flints,  676. 

Hunting  tribes,  territory  required  for,  79- 

494. 
Huron  county  enclosures,  226. 
Huron  woman  carried  to  Tartary,  96. 
Hurons,  ancestors  of  Cherokees,  438. 

Independence   slab,   420. 

Indian:  —  character,  strength  of,  505;: 
cruelty,  486;  reasons  for,  487-490;  de- 
fensive works,  character  of,  236;  duel, 
507;  eloquence,  503;  an  example  of, 
498;  fairness  and  generosity,  500; 
languages,  502;  method  of  smoking, 
579;  money,  or  wampum,  688;  self- 
control,  504;  traders,  95;  war  expe- 
ditions, 95. 

Indiana,  southern,  flint  from,  626. 

Indians: — as  builders  of  mounds,  443-445; 
as  cultivators  of  the  soil,  478;  as 
fighters,  496;  number  of,  494;  com- 
pared with  Mound  Builders,  425;  pop- 
ular belief  concerning,  473;  judged  by 
degenerate  individuals  or  tribes,  474; 
indefinite  meaning  attached  to  the 
name,  473;  opinions  by  those  familiar 
with  them,  475.  Of  Ohio: — origin  of, 
428-430;  date  of  arrival,  428-430;  con- 
stantly migrating,  431;  without  tradi- 
tions of  Mound  Builders,  427;  tribes 
exterminated  within  historic  period, 
429.     Sec,   also,   aborigines. 

Indian  Women: — condition  of,  481;  duties 
required  of  them,  482;  life  described 
by  a  white  woman  adopted  by  them» 
484;   owners  of  the  land,  486. 

Injustice  to  the  Indian,  491. 

Inscribed  tablets:— 580;  Berlin,  582;  Cin- 
cinnati, 383-582;  Davenport,  580;  Grave 
Creek,  320-5S2;  Lenape,  581;  Newark, 
581;  Wilmington,  582;  many  fraudu- 
lent, 583. 

Inscriptions: — on  cliffs  or  large  rocks,  see 
rock  inscriptions;  on  tablets  or  cere- 
monial stones,  see  inscribed  tablets. 

Interchange  of  articles  among  modern 
tribes,   95. 

Interments  in  mounds,  314. 

Interruptions  of  work  in  mound  building, 
319-335-355-363. 

Intrusive  burial  by  Mound  Builders,  349- 
357. 

Iron  from  Indian  grave  in  Tennessee,  459. 

Iroquois,  builders  of  enclosures,  452. 

Irregular  enclosures,  225;  purpose  of,  232; 
plainly  defensive,   234. 


Index. 


756 


Japanese  and  other  wrecks  on  American 

coast,  36. 
Jawbones: — size    of    in    Mound    Builders, 

142;  carved  into  ornaments,  679. 
Journey  of  a  Huron  woman  to  Tartary,  96, 
Junction  group,  202. 
Justification  of  injustice,  493. 

Kanawha  valley,  flint  in,  626. 
Karnac,  Brittany, great  stone  serpent  at, 46. 
Kelly's  Island,  remains  on,  231. 
Knives,  flint,  method  of  hafting,  675. 
Knox  county,  mounds  in,  329. 
Koch,   discovery  of  Mastodon   remains  in 
Missouri,  107. 

Labor,  amount  of,  in  constructing  earth- 
works,  84-266-337. 

Lake  Erie,  works  near  shores  of,  227. 

Lake  Superior  copper  mines,  706. 

Lamantin,  see  manatee. 

Land,  amount  of  necessary  to  support  a 
hunter,    79-494. 

Languages,  great  length  of  time  required 
for   developing,   42. 

Languages,  Indian,  power  of,  502. 

Largest  grave  ever  found,  378. 

Leavenworth,  Indiana,  flint  near,  626. 

Lenape   stone,   581. 

Lenape  or  Delaware  tradition,  432. 

Liberty  township   works,   see  Harness. 

Licking  county: — enclosures  and  other 
works,  162;  flint,  619;  graded  way,  278; 
hill  top  enclosures  with  exterior  ditch, 
259-261;  mounds,  331;  stone  enclosure, 
261. 

List  of  works  cited  and  to  consult,  729. 

Loads,  weight  that  can  be  carried,  85. 

Logan,  mounds  near,  339. 

Long-heads,  see  skulls. 

Lookout  mounds,  311. 

Lorain  county,  enclosures  in,  227. 

Lucas  county,  enclosures  in,  227. 

Madisonville: — cemetery  near,  406;  graded 
way,  278;  village  site  near,  406. 

Maize,  amount  required  for  a  village,  80. 

Mammoth,   see   mastodon. 

Manatee,  610. 

Manatee  effigy  pipes,  really  otters,  611. 

JManitus,   see  manatee. 

Mandans,  454;  as  Mound  Builders,  470; 
builders  of  large  enclosures,  452-455. 

"Manufacture  of  arrow  heads,  636;  of  flint 
implements  generally,  632. 

Marietta: — easily  worked  stone  at,  577; 
graded  way  or  "via  sacra,"  272;  mod- 
ern objects  reported  from  mounds  at, 
456;  refutation  of  report,  457;  mounds 
at,  337;  works,  171. 


Marrow  for  butter,  519. 

Massacre  burials,  315. 

Massie's  creek,  work  on,  519. 

Mastodon :— remains  in  Louisiana,  109  j_  in 
Missouri,  107;  in  Nebraska,  109;  -in 
swamps  or  bogs,  113;  how  long  extinct, 
110-112. 

Materials: — composing  mounds  and  earth- 
works, 319;  for  stone  implements, 
where   obtained,   509. 

Melting  point  of  copper,  713. 

Mental  power  of  Indians,  503. 

Meteoric  iron   from  mounds,  343-386. 

Mexican  designs  on  copper  plates  from 
Georgia,  722. 

Miami  county: — enclosure  near  Piqua,  265; 
graded  way,  274;  remains  in,  221. 

Miamisburg  mound,  382. 

Miami  valleys,  works  in,  209. 

Mica: — source  of  supply,  702-703;  manner 
of  quarrying,  702;  of  cutting  into 
form,  703;  great  quantities  in  single 
mounds,  352-701. 

Migration  of  primitive  man: — influenced 
by  geological  changes,  42;  summary  of 
routes  into  America,  146;  difficulty  of, 
from  New  Mexico  to  Ohio,  53.  Of 
Ohio  Indians,  431. 

Military  capacity  of  Indians,  496-497. 

Minerals,  relative  hardness  of  varieties, 
603. 

Minor  enclosures,  purpose  of,  220. 

Modern  mounds  in  Great  Lake  region, 
450;  in  Gulf  States,  446;  in  Virginia, 
449.    See,  also,  Grave  creek  mound. 

Modern  objects  reported  from  mounds: — 
348-448-449-455;  at  Circleville  and  Mar- 
ietta, 456;  statements  sometimes  in- 
correct or  misleading,  458-459. 

Molds    for    pottery,    696. 

Monitor  pipes,  583;  compared  with  Cher- 
okee pipes,  584. 

Montgomery  county,  enclosure  near  Day- 
ton, 265;  Miamisburg  mound,  382. 

Mortars,   320-548. 

Mound  and  surface  specimens  compared, 
513. 

Mound  Builders:— ancestors  of  Cherokees, 
438;  artistic  ability  over-rated,  605; 
ashes  of,  in  mounds,  320;  asserted 
superiority  to  modern  Indians,  426; 
character  of  government,  66;  civili- 
zation claimed  for,  61;  dissenting  opin- 
ions, 68;  compared  with  modern  In- 
dians, 425;  density  of  population,  78; 
different  tribes  of,  90;  early  writers 
on,  59;  ethnical  status,  75-471-472;  ex- 
tent of  territory,  86;  of  traffic  among, 
94;  fate  of,  468;  mounds  opened  by, 
for   later    interments,    349-367;    no    re- 


756 


Index, 


semblance  between  their  works  and 
works  of  Aztecs  or  Pueblo  Indians,  53; 
physical  structure  of,  131;  possible 
jj'dentity  with  Cherokees,  470;  with 
^  Man  dans,  470;  with  Tallegwi,  438-441; 
religion  of,  76;  romantic  literature 
concerning,  71;  settlements  not  on 
sites  of  modern  cities,  80;  size  of 
skeletons,  145;  summary  of  common 
beliefs,  60;  of  theories  and  opinions, 
469;  theories  as  to  origin  and  migra- 
tion, 48;  uncertainty  of  all  theories, 
52;  unit  of  measure  among,  63;  who 
were  they?  48.     See,   also,  aborigines. 

Mound  Building:— origin  of,  43;  a  world- 
wide custom,  43;  among  modern  In- 
dians,  443-445. 

Mound  City: — 198;  results  of  exploration, 
349;  description  of  effigy  pipes  from, 
589;  materials  of  which  the  pipes  are 
made,   602. 

Mound  Pottery,  691. 

Mound  relics  from  Illinois  and  Iowa  sim- 
ilar to  Ohio  specimens,  101. 

Mounds: — Agricultural,  in  Arkansas  and 
Missouri,  90-105;  altar,  304;  buildings 
erected  on,  310;  built  by  Cherokees, 
444;  built  on  house  sites,  347-379-; 
381;  built  over  old  graves,  321;  burial 
813;  classification  of,  303;  composition, 
300;  containing  stone  graves,  Butler 
county,  383;  covered  with  gravel,  349- 
359-361;  culinary  debris  in,  320-328-335 
distribution,  299;  earth  not  carried  far 
in  building,  82;  errors  in  representing 
300;  greatest  yield  of  specimens,  345 
how  built,  319;  imaginary  section  of 
350;  in  southern  states,  built  by  known 
tribes,  446;  in  small  enclosures,  220 
in  eastern  hemisphere,  44;  joined  at 
base,  293-354-376;  labor  required  to 
build,  337;  method  of  building,  335 
number  in  Ohio,  299;  on  hills,  not  for 
observation  or  signaling,  311-312;  on 
overflow  terraces,  124-125-129;  position 
of  remains  in,  315;  shape,  300;  size, 
335;  stone,  388;  stone  and  earth 
mingled,  375-389;  southern  type  near 
Evansville,  Indiana,  96;  stratification, 
305;  temple,  310;  time  needed  for 
building,  83-337;  variations  in  size,  299; 
variety  of  soils  or  earth  composing, 
319;  work  of  erection  not  continuous, 
307-319-328-335;  363.  See,  also,  earth- 
works. 

Moundsville,  see  Grave  creek. 

Mount  Vernon  mound,   329. 

Mullers  or  grinders,  539. 

Muskingum  county,  mounds  in,  337. 


Mussels:— pearls  from,  414;  used  for  food, 
413. 

Nations  of  Mound  Builders,  90. 

Newark: — circle  in  fair-ground,  168; 
graded  way,  278;  octagon,  171;  rock 
inscriptions  near,  418;  tablet  or  "Moses 
stone,"  581;  square,  168;  supposed  ef- 
figy, 292;  Taylor  mound  near,  333; 
works,  162;  errors  in  description,  166. 

New  Lexington,  flint  quarries,  625. 

Newtown,  Turner  group  near,  209. 

Nez  Perce  war,  497. 

North  Bend,   Fort  Miami  near,  254. 

Northern   Ohio,   mounds   in,   322. 

Norwalk: — works,  266;  contents  of  mound, 
322. 

Nut-stones,   see   cup-stones. 

Objects    deposited    vi^ith    the    dead:— 315; 

usually   few   in   number,   316;    reasons 

for  the.  custom,  317;   remarkable  yield 

of  Hopewell  mound,  345. 
Octagon: — how    to    construct,    162;    High 

Bank,  188;  Newark,  171. 
Ohio  Indians,  date  of  arrival  in  the  State, 

^428. 
Ohio  Mound  Builders,  54. 
Ohio     Mounds,     Problem    of,     by    Cyrus 

Thomas,  abstract  of,  464. 
Ohio  river  floods,  124. 
Opossum  effigy  near  Granville,  291. 
Origin  of  American  Indians,  summary  of 

discussions,  146. 

Pacific  currents,  36. 

Paleolithic    implements,    see    glacial    drift. 

Paleolithic  man,   see  glacial  man. 

Palisades:  —  on  embankment  in  Butler 
county,  217;  in  Circle ville,  208;  as  con- 
tinuations of  incomplete  embankments, 
217;  in  connection  with  modern  In- 
dian forts,  237. 

Parallel  walls,  Peet's  theory  of,  159;  at 
Marietta,   172. 

Pearls  from  fresh-water  mussels,  414. 

Perforated  stones: — ceremonial  or  orna- 
mental, 503;  small  polished,  564.  See 
also,   discoidal  stones. 

Perforators:— bone,  679;  flint,  657. 

Perry  county;— flint  in,  625;  Glenford 
fort,    248. 

Pestles: — forms  of,  537;  methods  of  using, 
537. 

Petit  Anse  island.,mastodon  remains  on,109. 

Physical  structure  of  Mound  Builders  and 
Indians,  131. 

Pickaway  county; — embankment  of  north- 
ern type,  236;  mounds,  341;  the  Cross,  295. 


Index. 


767 


Pickets,  see  palisades. 

Pictorial  writing,  see  rock  inscriptions. 

Pike  county,  Missouri,  aboriginal  stone 
houses,  64. 

Pike  county,  Ohio:  — graded  way,  274; 
mounds,  362;  mounds  joined  at  base, 
293;    works,    179. 

Pipes:— elephant  figure,  110-112;  effigies 
from  Mound  City,  352;  material  of 
effigies,  602;  not  used  by  Aztecs,  52; 
stone  for,  carried  long  distance,  585; 
various  forms  for  different  occasions, 
582.  See,  also,  effigy  pipes  and  moni- 
tor pipes. 

Pipestone  quarry,  Minnesota,  585. 

Piqua:— graded  way,  274;  remains  near, 
221. 

Pitted  stones,  539. 

Place  of  Mound  Builder  in  stages  of  de- 
velopment, 75. 

Plummets:  — as  charm  stones,  556;  as 
sinkers,  558. 

Polished  base  in  certain  forms  of  arrow- 
heads, 647. 

Polynesian  route,  the,  37. 

Ponds  :~at  Fort  Hill,  247;  at  Spruce  Hill, 
244. 

Population: — Indians  of  United  States, 
494;  density  of  among  Mound  Build- 
ers, 78. 

Portsmouth  works,  173. 

Position  of  skeletons  in  mounds,  315. 

Posture  of  skeletons  in  mounds,  314. 

Pottery:— 691;  how  made,  696;  molds  for 
696. 

Power  of  expression  of  Indian  languages, 
502. 

Pre-glacial  man,  see  glacial  drift. 

Problem  of  Ohio  Mounds,  by  Cyrus 
Thomas,  abstract  of,  464. 

Pueblo  Indians,  no  evidence  of  in  Ohio 
valley,  53. 

Puget  Sound  region,  home  of  first  Amer- 
ican aborigines,   47. 

Pyramid  mound,  Marietta,  338. 

Quarries,    improperly    so    called    at    Fort 

Hill,  245. 
Quarrying  by  aborigines :— copper,  708-710; 

mica,  702;  with  stone  tools,  520. 

Rafinesque,  translation  of  Lenape  tradi- 
tion, 434. 

Rattlesnake:— carved  in  stone,  688;  in- 
cised on  shells,  687. 

Reading,  mounds  near,  384. 

Rebounding  blow  in  working  flint,  639. 

Red  Bank,  artificial  terraces  at,  281. 

Refuse  of  houses  in  mounds,  320-328. 


Refuse-pits:— Madisonville,  406;  in  com- 
mon use  among  Indians  everywhere, 
409. 

Religion  of  Mound  Builders,  76. 

Remains,  in  mounds,  position  of,  315;  on 
altars,  character  of,  309. 

Remarkable    discoveries    reported,    73. 

Reservoirs,    see    ponds. 

Retaliation  for  injury  always  carried  too 
far,  490. 

Revenge  a  virtue  in  savage  code,  490. 

Reversion  to  barbarism  easy,  499. 

Richmonddale,  graded  way,  273. 

Rings,  see  perforated  stones. 

Ripley,  cairns  near,  402. 

River  bottom-lands,  see  terraces. 

Rivers,  changes  in  channels,  255. 

Rock  shelters: — character  of,  415;  used 
for  long  periods,  416;  burials  in,  415; 
Ash  cave,  Hocking  county,  415;  Elyria, 
415;  Summit  county,  416. 

Rock  Inscriptions:— 417;  similar  to  modern 
Indian  cuttings  and  paintings,  417; 
probably  all  comparatively  recent,  418; 
partial  list  of  localities  where  found, 
423. 

Rolled  copper,  726. 

Rollers  for  metal,  earliest  use  of,  726. 

Romances  regarding  Mound  Builders,  71. 

Roots  and  stumps  of  trees  in  mounds, 
121-363. 

Ross  county:— enclosures,  181;  ellipse,  217; 
graded  ways,  273-278-280;  mounds,  342; 
mounds  joined  at  base,  293;  Spruce 
Hill,  242;  stone  work  on  Black  run, 
295. 

Rotary  arrow  heads,  673. 

Rulers  and  slaves  among  Mound  Build- 
ers, 66. 

Saltmaking  by  various  tribes,  462. 

Schoolcraft,    Lenape   tradition,   436. 

Scioto  Valley,  Cusick's  tradition  may  ap- 
ply to,  442. 

Scrapers:— of  bone,  679;  of  flint,  manufac- 
ture  and   uses,    667-668. 

Sculptures  of  Mound  Builders,  604. 

Sea-cow,  see  manatee. 

Second  burials,  323-334-358-376-385. 

Section  of  mound,  guessed  at,  350. 

Seminole  war:— cause  of,  492;  greatly  ir.- 
ferior  forces  of  Indians,  496. 

Sepulchral  mounds,  313. 

Serpent  mound:— 282;  burials  at,  380;  devil 
theory,  288;  garden  of  Eden  theory, 
288;  oriental  symbolism  theory,  284; 
frog  theory,  286;  rational  explanation 
of,  288. 

Serpent  sculpture,  38. 


758 


Index. 


Serpent,  stone  work  at  Karnac,  Brittany, 

46;  at  Stonehenge,  England,  45. 
Serpent  worship,  39. 
Serration  on  flint  implements,  673. 

Shells: — engraved,  687;  from  Mexico,  49. 

Shell  heaps,  413. 

Shell  implements  and  ornaments,  684; 
beads,  688;  gorget,  686;  hoes,  685;  pins, 
688;   spoon,  686. 

Short-heads,  see  skulls. 

Signal  mounds:— 311;  useless,  312. 

Silt   in   mounds,   329. 

■Silver:— in  copper,  713;  in  mounds,  341-386. 

Similarity  of  works  at  Evansville,  In- 
diana, to  those  at  Aztalan,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  Etowah,  Georgia,  97;  of 
mound  and  surface  "relics,"  513. 

Sinkers,   549. 

Size  of  mounds,  335. 

Skeletons:— burial  of,  358-376;  in  ash-pits 
at  Madison ville,  406;  posture  of,  314; 
property  with,  315;  majority  of  them 
without  worked  objects,  316;  size  of, 
145;  one  with  copper  antlers,  at  Hope- 
well's, 345. 

Skill  of  Mound  Builders  in  working  stone, 
511-604;  over-rated,  605. 

Skilled  artisans  among  aborigines,  511. 

Skin-dressing  with   stone  tools,   520. 

Skulls  of  American  aborigines: — character 
of  development,  142;  classification,  131; 
error  in  i-epresenting,  134;  forms  of, 
131;  from  various  localities,  140;  made 
into  cups,  357;  limits  to  which  dif- 
ferent forms  are  confined,  133;  of 
Mound  Builders,  365;  only  one  figured 
by  Squier  and  Davis,  135;  unfounded 
•  statements  and  theories  regarding 
forms,  134-135-140;  unsatisfactory  na- 
ture of  classification,  132-141. 

Slate  and  other  soft  stone,  methods  of 
working,  573. 

Slavery  among  Mound  Builders,  66. 

Small  circles: — possible  origin  of,  225; 
purposes   of,   225. 

Smelting  copper,  713. 

Smoking,  manner  of  among  Indians,  579. 

Snake  carving  from  mound,  344. 

Snake  den  rriounds,  Pickaway  county,  341. 

Southern  Ohio,  mounds  in,  324. 

Spades  of  bone,  678. 

Specialists  in  certain  lines  among  Mound 
Builders,  511-604. 

Spool-shaped  stones,  569. 

"Spools"  or  ear  ornaments  of  c©pper,  7l7. 

Spoon  of  shell,  686. 

Spruce  Hill  fort,  Ross  county,  242. 

Spuds,  554. 

Square  enclosures  at  or  near:— Bainbridge, 
206;     Bourneville,     symmetrical,     206; 


Cedar  Banks,  196;  Chillicothe,  incom- 
plete, 190;  Circle  ville,  208;  Frankfort, 
190;  Ilopetown,  193;  Hopewell's,  204; 
Marietta,  171;  Newark,  168;  Ports- 
mouth, 173;  Pike  county,  181. 

Square,  how  to  construct,  161-162. 

Squier,  Lenape  tradition,  434. 

Squier  and  Davis,  "Ancient  Monuments": 
— causes  of  their  many  errors,  58; 
credit  due  to,  58;  falsity  of  their  al- 
leged proofs,  57;  their  test  work 
wholly  imaginary,  57-186;  unfounded 
claims  of  accuracy,  55. 

Stages  of  progress,   75. 

Starting-point  of  American  Indians,  47. 

Stone  age,  definition  of,  0;  divisions  of, 
6.  See,  also,  glacial  drift,  and  glacial 
man. 

Stone-and-earth  mounds,  375-389. 

Stone  axes: — definition  of  terms,  522; 
grooved  seldom  found  in  mounds,  524; 
manner  of  grooving,  522;  modern  use 
of,  522;  time  required  to  make,  524; 
variation  in  size,  521. 

Stone  club-heads,  545. 

Stone,  easily  worked,  at  Marietta,  577. 

Stone  enclosures:— near  Piqua,  265;  on 
Flint  Ridge,  201. 

Stone  fort,  reported  in  Clark  county,  In- 
diana, true  character  of,  65. 

Stone  forts:— Glenford,  248;  Spruce  Hill, 
242. 

Stone  graves: — in  mounds,  383-392.  Sec, 
also,  cairns. 

Stone  heap  in   Ross  county,  391. 

Stonehenge,  England,  size  of  circle  at,  221. 

Stone  houses  in  Missouri,  G4. 

Stone  implements: — great  numbers  of,  509; 
reasons  for  abundance,  510;  difference 
in  finish  no  indication  of  relative  age, 
512. 

Stone  mounds: — 388;  erroneous  explana- 
tion of,  391;  large  one  near  Newark, 
388. 

Stone  objects: — general  division  of,  516; 
chipped  or  flaked,  see  flint  implements; 
of  any  kind,  see  under  separate  heads. 

Stone  pavement  at  Fort  Ancient,  239. 

Stone  tools,  complicated  work  done  with, 
516. 

Stone  work,  peculiar,  in  Ross  county,  295. 

Stone  wall,  "standing"  on  Spruce  Hill, 
244. 

Stones  in  earth  walls: — ^t  Fort  Ancient, 
239;  Fort  Hill,  245;  Fort  Miami,  254; 
Foster's  Fort,  256. 

Stratification  in  mounds,  305. 

Streams: — erosion  by,  125;  rapid  and  sud- 
den changes  of  channel,  126;  changes 
in,  of  no  value  in  estimating  time,  126. 


Index. 


759 


Sun-dried  bricks,  460. 

Superstitions  of  whites  and  Indians,  com- 
pared, 318. 

Survey,  imaginary,  of  a  "perfect"  circle, 
186. 

Symbolic  carving  on  bone  from  Hope- 
well's similar  to  Mexican  work,  49. 

Tallegwi,  possibly  ancestors  of  Cherokees, 
436;  probable  fate  of,  438. 

Tapir  effigy  near  Portsmouth,  294. 

Tartary,    Huron    woman    in,    96. 

Taylor  mound  nearXewark,  333. 

Teeth,  animal,  with  roots  ground  off,  679. 

Teeth,  Mound  Builders',  condition  of,  143- 
371. 

Tempered  copper,  705. 

Temple  at  Abury,  England,  45;  at  Kar- 
nac,   Brittany,    46. 

Temple  Mounds,  310;   at  Marietta,  338. 

Tennessee  aborigines: — character  of  re- 
mains, 70;  compared  with  those  of 
Ohio,  464. 

Terraces,  artificial :— at  Fort  Ancient,  281; 
at  Red  Bank,  281;  near  Waynesville, 
281;  purpose  unknown,  281;  Foster's 
Fort,  to  serve  as  base  for  walls,  256. 

Terraces,  natural: — absence  of  mounds  on 
some,  124-125;  advantages  of  living  on 
lower  ones,  129;  how  formed,  127; 
mounds  on  lowest,  129;  number  of, 
124;  overflow  on,  124;  relative  level  of, 
128. 

Terra  cotta  figures   from  mounds,  386. 

Thruston,  antiquities  of  Tennessee,  463. 

Tibia,   flattening  of,  144. 

Timber,  varieties  in  mounds,  356.  See, 
also,  trees. 

Time  needed  for: — building  mounds,  83- 
337;  constructing  hill-top  enclosures, 
266;   making  arrow  heads,  643. 

Toledo,  enclosures  near,  227. 

Tomahawks,  see  celts. 

Torture,  evidence  of  in  mound,  374. 

Toucan,  the,  608. 

Trade  among  Indians,  95. 

Traditions:— 427;  bearing  of  on  Ohio  en- 
closures, 441;  how  long  preserved,  428- 
432;  Iroquois,  recorded  by  Cusick,  437; 
Lenape  or  Delaware,  432;  none  con- 
cerning Mound  Builders  among  Ohio 
Indians,  427;  reasons  for  ignorance, 
428;  reliability  of  in  general,  428- 
431-432. 

Traffic   in   flint,   627. 

Treachery  of  army  officers  to  Osceola,  493. 

Trees: — absence  of  in  Mound  Builders' 
time  alleged,  122;  abundant  remains  of 
in   mounds,   122;   age   of,   117-121;    an- 


cient, on  Marietta  works,  173;  felled 
by  Indians  with  fire  and  stone  imple- 
ments, 518;  large  size  of  on  Fort  Hill, 
245;  life  limit  of,  118;  number  of 
rings,  120;  on  mounds,  117;  rate  of 
growth,  119;  renewal  of  on  cleared 
lands,  122-123;  root  and  stump  holes  in 
mounds,  121. 

Trefoil,  near  Bainbridge,  298. 

Trenton  gravels,  discussions: — by  Holmes, 
8;  by  Wright,  11;  by  others,  12;  sum- 
mary of,  14. 

Truncated  mounds,  Marietta,  338. 

Tubes,  576;  purposes  for  which  used,  578- 
579. 

Turner  group:— 209;  graded  way,  211; 
mounds,  385;  topography  of  vicinity, 
211. 

Turtle   backs,  6. 

Types  of  enclosures,  distribution  of,  101. 

Unit  of  measure  ascribed  to  Mound  Build- 
ers, 63. 
Uses  of  flint  implements,  645. 

Variations  of  earthworks,  267. 

Various  kinds  of  earth  in  a  mound,  319. 

Vaults  in  mounds,  325-328-329. 

Via  sacra  at   Marietta,  272. 

Village    sites,    406;    different   levels    of   at 

Fort  Ancient,  410. 
Virginia  mounds  built  in  recent  times,  449. 
Voyages,  involuntary,  of  great  length,  36. 

Wampum  or  Indian  money,  688. 

War  parties  of  Indians,  extensive  raids  of,. 
95. 

Warren  county: — artificial  terraces,  281; 
Fort  Ancient,  239;  Foster's  Fort,  256. 

Warsaw,  flint  quarries  near,  624. 

Water,  lack  of  in  hill-top  forts,  238. 

Waverly: — graded  way  near,  278;  mounds,. 
362. 

Waynesville,    artificial   terraces   near,    281. 

Weaving,   different  patterns  of,  697. 

Weight  that  a  laborer  can  carry,  85. 

Wells  at  Spruce  Hill  in  bottom  of  Paint 
Creek,   244. 

What  became  of  the  Mound  Builders?  468. 

Whetslate  defined,  603. 

Whites: — cruelty  and  injustice  toward  In- 
dians, 490;  easily  retrograde  into  bar- 
barism, 499. 

Wilmington:— mound  near,  covering  house 
site,  380;  tablet,  582. 

Wisconsin  and  Iowa: — effigy  mounds,  91- 
282;   the  elephant  mound,  110. 

Wolf  Plains,  Athens  county,  mounds  on» 
335. 


760 


Index. 


Women,  Indian,  see  Indian  women. 

Wood  cutting  with  stone,  518;  experiments 
with  flint  hatchets,  520. 

Work  on  mounds  not  continuous,  319-335- 
355-363. 

Worked  objects  of  stone: — ceremonial  or 
decorative,  561;  comparison  of  ancient 
and  modern,  513;  finely  finished  ones 
said  to  be  made  by  whites,  587;  no 
foundation  for  such  assertion,  588; 
from  mounds  identical  with  those  from 


the  surface,  513;  rough  ones  may  be 
quite  modern,  512;  source  of  raw  ma- 
terial, 509. 

Working  with  stone  tools,  516. 

Worthington,  enclosure  near,  217. 

Wrecks  of  Asian  vessels  on  western  coast, 
36. 

Writers  on  archaeology,  Peet's  catalogue 
of  59. 

Wyandotte  cave,  Indiana,  flint  in  and 
near,   626. 


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